15 nabbed for cyber fraud in Faridabad in a week

Faridabad, March 24

The cyber cells of the district police arrested 15 persons in connection with eight cases of crime between March 15 and March 21. A spokesperson for the Police Department said the cyber cell units of the three zones — Central, NIT and Ballabgarh — resolved a total of 370 complaints.

They facilitated refunds amounting to Rs 4.64 lakh that was fraudently obtained by cyber criminals. Additionally, a sum of Rs 26.2 lakh was frozen in the bank accounts of these criminals.

The arrested have been identified as Manpreet Singh, alias Kaku, Soyam Diyam and Vikas from Uttam Nagar, Delhi; Radhey Krishan from Rajasthan; Sushil Kumar from Hisar; Abhey, alias Golu, from Gurugram; Sonu from Mathura; Avinash from Lakshmi Nagar, Delhi; Anhsuman and Mohnish from Lucknow; Sayyed Ilyash from Hyderabad; Aman from Lucknow; Rohit Dalal from Ballabgarh (Faridabad); Satyajeet from Shastri Nagar, Delhi; and one minor accused. They were arrested by police teams during the investigation of several cybercrime cases committed recently.

Describing the modus operandi of the criminals, the spokesperson said that the crimes were often committed on the pretext of completing online tasks or games, refunding lapsed insurance policies, offering loans within minutes, increasing credit card limits, providing free gifts, updating KYC details, facilitating money transfers abroad, promising government job appointments and blackmailing based on obscene video calls made to customers.

The police have been conducting an awareness drive, advising people not to answer WhatsApp or video calls from unknown numbers, nor share any OTP or bank details over the phone. Suspicious or spam calls should either not be answered or should be blocked.

The accused also resorted to using pictures or photos of acquaintances or close relatives of the victims on Facebook or Instagram to seek financial assistance. Offers of free recharge or money for liking YouTube channels and subscriptions could also lead to such frauds, it is claimed.

The police official emphasised the importance of reporting all cybercrimes immediately to 1930 or cybercrime.gov.in. This action facilitates freezing the bank accounts of cybercriminals and recovering the money back into the victim’s account.