Express News Service
CHANDIGARH: The Haryana police cracked down on a network of Cyber Fraudsters in Nuh district m unearthing a Rs 100 crore pan-India scam where around 28,000 people have been cheated.
According to the state police department, as many as 1346 FIRs were registered against these cyber fraudsters across the 35 states. The cyber fraudsters lured victims with attractive offers of sale on products like bikes, cars, and mobile phones by posting misleading advertisements on Facebook /OLX.
These scamsters cheated people with fake SIM cards, Aadhaar cards etc and used them to deposit money in fake bank accounts to avoid arrest.
Superintendent of Police of Nuh, Varun Singla said, “On the intervening night of April 27 and 28, 102 teams of 5,000 policemen had raided 14 villages simultaneously. During this raid, around 125 suspected hackers were detained. Of these, 66 accused were identified and arrested. All were produced in the respective courts and taken on remand for 7- 11 days.”
To unearth the entire nexus, Haryana Director General of Police P K Agrawal deployed a team of 40 cyber experts to be closely associated with the interrogation of the accused, the SP said.
The mobile phones and SIM cards seized during the raid were technically examined and relevant details were also sought from TSPs/ISPs, banks, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), UPI intermediaries, UIDAI, DoT, social media platforms Facebook, WhatsApp, OLX etc, Singla added.
The Haryana Police also requested the assistance of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to provide the links of the fake bank accounts, SIMs, mobile phones etc. used by the fraudsters with the cybercrime complaints received nationwide.
Apart from this, 347 SIM cards activated from Haryana, West Bengal, Assam, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, North East, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka circles of telecom companies have also been unearthed which were being used by these accused for cybercrime. During the investigation, the source of fake SIMs and bank accounts has been found to be mainly linked to Bharatpur in Rajasthan.
“In 16 cases registered in Nuh district, 250 wanted cyber criminals working as co-accused with the cybercriminals apprehended have also been identified, out of which 20 are from Rajasthan, 19 from Uttar Pradesh and 211 from Haryana,” Singla further added.
The Modus Operandi
Giving details of the modus operandi, the police said that these fraudsters used to commit fraud by luring the victims with attractive offers of sale on products like bikes, cars, mobile phones etc, by posting misleading advertisements on Facebook, and OLX. The unsuspecting victim then calls the fraudster on the given fake mobile number and the fraudster cheats on the victim on the pretext ofcourier charges, transportation of products etc but the product never gets delivered.
These fraudsters also used to post an advertisement on social media platforms offering work-from-home opportunities mainly related to packaging Natraj Pencils, promising an earning of Rs 30,000 per month, and cheating gullible people on the pretext of the registration fee, packing materials, courier fee etc
The accused also used to check random number series in UPI apps to get the names of victimsregistered against those numbers on those apps. Then impersonates some friend or relative of those unsuspecting victims and requests them to receive payment on their behalf on one or the other pretext. They then used to commit fraud by sending fake payment messages and getting the real money transferred to their accounts before the victim found something amiss.
The accused were also duping victims through sextortion by creating attractive profiles on social media platforms and luring people to agree to a video chat where screen recordings were taken of the victims in compromising positions. These were then used to extort huge sums of money from them.
CHANDIGARH: The Haryana police cracked down on a network of Cyber Fraudsters in Nuh district m unearthing a Rs 100 crore pan-India scam where around 28,000 people have been cheated.
According to the state police department, as many as 1346 FIRs were registered against these cyber fraudsters across the 35 states. The cyber fraudsters lured victims with attractive offers of sale on products like bikes, cars, and mobile phones by posting misleading advertisements on Facebook /OLX.
These scamsters cheated people with fake SIM cards, Aadhaar cards etc and used them to deposit money in fake bank accounts to avoid arrest. googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });
Superintendent of Police of Nuh, Varun Singla said, “On the intervening night of April 27 and 28, 102 teams of 5,000 policemen had raided 14 villages simultaneously. During this raid, around 125 suspected hackers were detained. Of these, 66 accused were identified and arrested. All were produced in the respective courts and taken on remand for 7- 11 days.”
To unearth the entire nexus, Haryana Director General of Police P K Agrawal deployed a team of 40 cyber experts to be closely associated with the interrogation of the accused, the SP said.
The mobile phones and SIM cards seized during the raid were technically examined and relevant details were also sought from TSPs/ISPs, banks, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), UPI intermediaries, UIDAI, DoT, social media platforms Facebook, WhatsApp, OLX etc, Singla added.
The Haryana Police also requested the assistance of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to provide the links of the fake bank accounts, SIMs, mobile phones etc. used by the fraudsters with the cybercrime complaints received nationwide.
Apart from this, 347 SIM cards activated from Haryana, West Bengal, Assam, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, North East, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka circles of telecom companies have also been unearthed which were being used by these accused for cybercrime. During the investigation, the source of fake SIMs and bank accounts has been found to be mainly linked to Bharatpur in Rajasthan.
“In 16 cases registered in Nuh district, 250 wanted cyber criminals working as co-accused with the cybercriminals apprehended have also been identified, out of which 20 are from Rajasthan, 19 from Uttar Pradesh and 211 from Haryana,” Singla further added.
The Modus Operandi
Giving details of the modus operandi, the police said that these fraudsters used to commit fraud by luring the victims with attractive offers of sale on products like bikes, cars, mobile phones etc, by posting misleading advertisements on Facebook, and OLX. The unsuspecting victim then calls the fraudster on the given fake mobile number and the fraudster cheats on the victim on the pretext of
courier charges, transportation of products etc but the product never gets delivered.
These fraudsters also used to post an advertisement on social media platforms offering work-from-home opportunities mainly related to packaging Natraj Pencils, promising an earning of Rs 30,000 per month, and cheating gullible people on the pretext of the registration fee, packing materials, courier fee etc
The accused also used to check random number series in UPI apps to get the names of victims
registered against those numbers on those apps. Then impersonates some friend or relative of those unsuspecting victims and requests them to receive payment on their behalf on one or the other pretext. They then used to commit fraud by sending fake payment messages and getting the real money transferred to their accounts before the victim found something amiss.
The accused were also duping victims through sextortion by creating attractive profiles on social media platforms and luring people to agree to a video chat where screen recordings were taken of the victims in compromising positions. These were then used to extort huge sums of money from them.
