Cyber police bust Ghaziabad-based syndicate, arrests six

Mumbai: This Ghaziabad-based cybercrime syndicate of six people, had divided their responsibilities equally

Mumbai: This Ghaziabad-based cybercrime syndicate of six people, had divided their responsibilities equally. Three of them, working for call centres linked to insurance firms, would dupe customers with promise of policies that earned high returns. And the other three; set up bank accounts to receive and withdraw the victims’ money. They earned crores of rupees this way until the North Region Cyber police busted them.

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The arrested accused have been identified as Amitkumar Singh (30), Manishkumar Mishra (31), Vimalkumar Shankhwar (26), Shyambabu Pasi (28), Imran Siddiqui (36) and Satish Pal (40). All the six accused were arrested from UP on February 5 and brought to Mumbai. The police have also identified some more suspects involved in the racket and efforts are underway to trace and apprehend them.

According to police officials, investigation into the racket was initiated last year after a Dahisar- based businessman registered a complaint. The accused had, from 2016 to 2020, lured the complainant into paying ₹4.08 lakh and convinced him that he was buying six insurance policies, which would get him high returns when they matured in 2022.

When the businessman got back in touch with them last year to ask about the returns, they convinced him to pay even more money, as processing fees, and the complainant ended up losing a total of ₹44.35 lakh.

“In the course of the investigation, we identified 20 bank accounts that were used in the crime. We conducted a technical analysis of the mobile numbers and email addresses connected to the bank accounts and zeroed in on the accused, who was based in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh,” said Balsing Rajput, deputy commissioner of police (Cyber).

“Singh, Mishra and Shankhwar are employees of call centres providing their services to insurance broking firms and they were the ones, who had contacted and interacted with the complainant. Pasi, Siddiqui and Pal withdrew the money from Automated Teller Machine (ATM) kiosks as soon as the money was received from the complainant,” said Rajput.

He added that after establishing initial contact with the victims through the call centre’s phones, the accused would interact further using their own mobile phones, without their employers’ knowledge, to take the scam ahead.

During these private conversations, they would tell the victims that they stood to gain much more than what was initially promised to them, as they were eligible for bonuses. Using this lure, the accused would allegedly convince their victims to send more money to bank accounts not related to the insurance firms, and pocket the money.

“The six accused, who were active for the last two to three years, are believed to have made crores of rupees so far. Further investigations into the racket are underway,” said Rajput.