Hyderabad: Five cyber criminals belonging to the same gang, who collected details of bank customers by sending Google Docs before committing the fraud, were arrested by Cyberabad cyber crime sleuths on Wednesday.
The accused Ram Kumar Mandal, Jamruddin Ansari, Jitendra Mandal and Birender Kumar Mandal of Jharkhand and Rohit Raj from Bihar had Rs 2.66 lakh cash, 12 gms gold, and six mobile phones in their possession. However, the prime accused Sanjay Kumar Mandal is still at large. Police have launched a hunt to arrest the culprit.
In October, a woman doctor received a text message on her mobile phone from QP-SBINBS informing that her debit card has been blocked for not completing her KYC details with the State Bank of India and a link was also sent for updating the details.
She opened the link, which directed to a Google Docs page, where she submitted net banking credentials. The very next day, around Rs 5.29 lakh was transferred into different e-wallets without her knowledge. She lodged a complaint soon after noticing the fraud.
A retired professor also became a victim of the modus operandi. He lost huge amounts to the same six-member gang, about which he lodged a complaint.
Cyberabad Police Commissioner V.C. Sajjanar said that during investigation, it was found that the money was used by the accused to purchase gift vouchers of a popular jewellery brand, an air-conditioner and also to pay electricity bills of various persons in Punjab.
A team of cyber crime sleuths, including ACP Ch Y. Srinivas, went to Dhanbad and Bokaro and collected technical clues and zeroed in on the perpetrators.
The Commissioner said, “The gang was purchasing vouchers in order to delay tracking. Moreover, all other financial transactions carried out online were under the scanner. Ram Kumar and Jamruddin were wanted in most states. They indulged in cyber frauds from Jamtara and its surrounding villages Narayanpur and Karmatar.”
The police also found that Ram Kumar, who used to live in a hut till 2016, has moved to a plush house and was constructing another house in an area of 3,000 sq ft.
Jitendra is the brother of Rajendra Mandal, who was earlier arrested this year for similar crimes. While Birendar and Rohit, a Facebook friend of Ram Kumar, were working on a five per cent commission to redeem gift vouchers.
Sajjanar said that Sanjay Mandal after duping people with OTP and UPI transaction frauds, had now trained his gang members.
“The people residing in Narayanpur, Karmatar, and Jamtara go about researching on new ways to dupe people and make money in the process,” he added.
