Gurugram police bust gang that duped people, 4 arrested

Investigators said that the suspects were amassing ₹30,000 to ₹40,000 per day by duping people across India

The Gurugram Police has busted a gang after raiding a house in Sector 56 that was duping people across the country by sending them fraudulent SMSes of erroneous transactions made into their bank accounts and then asking them to return the money, officers said on Sunday.

Police officers said that four gang members were arrested from a rented flat on the ground floor of the house during the raid carried out by a team led by assistant commissioner of police (cybercrime) Priyanshu Dewan on Saturday night. (Representational image)

Inspector Savit Kumar, station house officer of the cybercrime police station (east), said that the suspects were amassing ₹30,000 to ₹40,000 per day by duping people across India. The total amount of money stolen by the suspects from victims across the country is being investigated, said officers.

Police officers said that four gang members were arrested from a rented flat on the ground floor of the house during the raid carried out by a team led by assistant commissioner of police (cybercrime) Priyanshu Dewan on Saturday night.

The arrested suspects were identified as Jagmohan Kumar, Shubham Kumar, Rambharose, and Vikesh Singh of Deeg, Rajasthan. “They used to make up to 300-400 calls per day across the country alerting their target victims about deposits erroneously made into their accounts via UPI and simultaneously requesting to return the money,” he said.

Investigators said that the gang was active for more than a year but had started working from Gurugram recently. A senior police officer said that the gang used to feed random mobile numbers on digital wallet applications to identify which platform a mobile number was using for the UPI facility.

“Once they found the number was linked to a UPI app, they sent a fraudulent banking transaction SMS to them alerting them about money being credited into their bank account. Afterwards, one of the suspects used to call the target asking him or her to return the money saying he had wrongly sent money into his or her account,” said Kumar.

Once the victim paid the suspects, the latter immediately sent the money to bank accounts provided by a man named Rahil, investigators said. Police officers said that Rahil used to keep 30% of the stolen money and gave 70% to one of the four suspects to share among themselves.

Investigators said that the bank account statements of the suspects will be collected to determine how much crores of money had been stolen. Five SIM cards and four phones were seized from their possession, said investigators.

The suspects were produced before a city court on Sunday and taken on police remand for detailed interrogation. Police said efforts were underway to trace Rahil and other unidentified suspects.