E-Paper
Cyber crime cell of Lucknow police nabs five for posing as bank officials
The accused are residents of Dumka district in Jharkhand, according to the Lucknow police. They were wanted in a case of fraud lodged at the Hazratganj police station in the Uttar Pradesh state capital.
The cyber crime cell of the Lucknow police arrested five men on Monday for posing as bank officials to defraud people, the police said.
Confirming the arrests, Lucknow commissioner of police DK Thakur said, “Our cyber crime team has arrested one Vijay Mandal, 29, Manoj Mandal, 27, Rajesh Kumar Mandal, 20, Jitendra Kumar Mandal, 31 and Karan Kumar Mandal,19. The accused were arrested following a tip-off. They were wanted in a case of cyber fraud lodged at the Hazratganj police station (in Lucknow).”
The said case was lodged last year where the complainant informed police that ₹5.3 million ( ₹53 lakh) was stolen from his account fraudulently in an online transaction. The case was handed over to the cyber cell for investigation.
The accused are residents of Dumka district in Jharkhand, he said, adding that they were being questioned about their activities by a team of the cyber crime cell.
The accused were believed to have been involved in defrauding people to the tune of over ₹200 million ( ₹20 crore) in the last six years by posing as officials of different banks and financial institutions.
The team recovered ₹1.2 lakh cash from the accused and was working to trace the accounts in which money taken from their victims was kept, the senior police officer said.
The accused told police that they used the loopholes in available mobile applications of various banks to get access to the bank accounts of people, according to the Lucknow police.
The accused used to buy information about bank customers and call them at random, asking for verification for the mobile application. Once this was done, the accused used this information to transact money from the account of the victim.
“They targeted people across the country and kept changing their phone and SIM card to avoid detection. They also divided the work among themselves and kept a low profile,” said Thakur.
The accused were booked for fraud and under various sections of the IT Act and sent to prison, he said, adding that police were looking for other members of the gang.
