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Class-10 passout behind 1,352 cyber fraud cases: Chandigarh police
Involvement revealed through a centralised portal for cyber crime that analysed the IMEI numbers used by the accused to commit the cyber frauds
The 23-year-old Haryana man arrested by Chandigarh Police for a cyber fraud in February has turned out to be involved in 1,352 similar cases across the country.
The cyber crime investigation cell (CCIC) of Chandigarh Police had arrested Vikas, alias Vicky Kumar, a Class 10 passout from Haryana’s Fatehabad, for duping a city woman of ₹83,979 on April 19.
Following his arrest, his information was shared with the central government’s Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, a centralised portal for cyber crime.
According to police, the subsequent analysis of mobile phone IMEI numbers used by Vikas revealed his involvement in 1,352 cyber fraud cases across India.
Police said the accused used just four IMEI numbers, a 15-digit number unique to each device, to execute all crimes.
Vikas, who is presently lodged in Model Jail, Sector 51, was arrested on April 19, in connection with duping Gurjeet Kaur, 46, a resident of Sector 23.
A government employee, Kaur had complained to the police that a man called her over the phone, claiming to be a bank employee and informed her of an issue with her credit card. The man told her that her card was blocked and took details of other credit cards, following which a transaction for ₹83,979 was made from one of her cards.
Subsequently, a cheating case was registered at the Sector 17 police station on February 17. Following Vikas’ arrest in this case, police had recovered three mobile phones from him.
Part of four-member gang
Through further probe, police found that Vikas was part of a four-member gang that had been duping people through fraudulent transactions for about two years.
Using fake addresses, the gang got SIM cards and bank accounts in Assam and Odisha.
Vikas managed the bank accounts and withdrew the duped money before further distributing it among the gang members. Having turned to crime for easy money, Vikas spent his share on luxury cars, said police.
“We are working on tracing the other members of the gang. As per the investigation so far, Vikas is wanted by police of multiple states and we are getting details of the other frauds committed by him,” said inspector Hari Om Sharma, in-charge, CCIC.
