Police crack modus operandi of cyber gang
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After shedding jobs in the course of the lockdown, just a few truck drivers, mechanics and agricultural labourers from Rajasthan donned the function of cyber criminals.
The Chennai metropolis police lately tracked them down for creating pretend accounts of senior IPS officers and dishonest individuals. However, this isn’t the primary time that they’ve indulged in cyber crimes.
They have already cheated a number of individuals after receiving cash on-line for supplying overseas liquor or for promoting autos on OLX, the police mentioned.
In August, they created pretend Facebook accounts of Chennai City Police Commissioner Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal and greater than two dozen IPS officers within the metropolis, together with DGP Ashutosh Shukla. They didn’t spare cops of Telangana, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh both.
They copied the profile photos of the IPS officers from their Facebook accounts, and used them to create pretend profiles. They then befriended individuals from the officers’ good friend lists, asking for cash on grounds of medical emergencies, together with COVID-19. Some individuals, with out verifying the account’s authenticity, credited the cash into the cellular wallets of the criminals.
After analysing name data, a particular workforce of cyber police traced the suspects to Kethuwara and Levra villages of Kaman Tahsil, in Bharatpur district, Rajasthan. The workforce nabbed the primary suspect, Shakeel Khan, who was needed by different States as properly.
Shakeel Khan has attended college solely as much as Class 2, the police mentioned.
He was incomes ₹5,000 as a truck driver in Kaithwara village. After he misplaced his job in the course of the lockdown, he became a full-time legal on our on-line world, and educated children from his space. His associates — two adults and two juveniles — have been additionally nabbed.
“Our investigation revealed that the criminals were once truck drivers or were involved in other allied professions. Most of them had not even completed elementary classes. After losing their jobs during the pandemic, they decided to indulge in cyber crime,” mentioned Additional Deputy Commissioner K. Saravanakumar.
“They trained themselves on how to become cyber criminals. Many juveniles were also involved in the offence. They did not have swanky offices but sat under trees in the village,” he mentioned.
The criminals operated in additional than a dozen villages of Alwar and Bharatpur districts in Rajasthan, bordering Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. It was very robust for the police to nab them. “If the police visited one village, the suspects escaped easily to others in the neighbouring States, on their two-wheelers. Sometimes, others would alert the criminals,” mentioned an officer who went looking.
“They are well-versed with the usage of social media tools. Once the victim paid them money through the wallet, the suspects transferred it quickly to three more wallets, and, later, to fictitious accounts, to avoid law-enforcement authorities. All remittances and transfers were done in a roundtable manner, sitting under a tree,” mentioned Assistant Commissioner of Police R. Durai.
Interestingly, there was no ATM within the surrounding villages, and so they seldom withdrew cash from banks. They withdrew cash from e-mitra service centres, utilizing “privileged debit” playing cards, the police mentioned.
Privileged cardholders can withdraw any quantity of cash, with none restrict. The police mentioned e-mitra companies have been established to render single-window companies to individuals in Rajasthan. The criminals would withdraw money from these centres, in connivance with the operators, paying them a fee. Everything was executed in violation of the norms, the police mentioned.
“They have free access to SIM cards, without any need to produce valid documents. They then use the cards in mobile phones to create fake profiles and transfer money from one wallet to another, without any requirement of KYC details. They keep changing the SIM cards. They also open fictious bank accounts and obtain privileged cards or swiping machines to withdraw money quickly,” mentioned Inspector Vinodh.
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