Friday, April 8, 2016

Cyber cell busts Delhi gang's 4.6cr fraud, arrests three persons




Pune: The cyber cell of the city police on Wednesday busted a gang of fraudsters for duping about 750 people from different parts of the state of about Rs 4.60 crore on the pretext of sanctioning loan and securing insurance policy.

The cyber crime cell team, led by inspector Sunil Pawar, arrested three persons, including an employee of a private bank. The suspects include Manish Gupta (22), Tarun Gupta (23) and bank employee Avnish Singh (36) - all from Delhi.

For the first time, the city police succeeded in busting such a racket of fraudsters. Of the 750 victims, 14 are from Pune. They have been duped of Rs 20 lakh, Pawar said.

Deepak Sakore, the deputy commissioner of police (cyber), told reporters that investigations revealed the gang members were using a name similar to a well-known private finance and insurance company to lure people.

"They were operating nine accounts - opened with fake documents - in five banks in Delhi. They used to tell people to transfer the amount to these accounts. Within 24 hours, the suspects used to withdraw the sum from these accounts from ATM kiosks," Sakore said, adding that only Rs 4 lakh could be seized from the accounts because the rest of the sum was withdrawn.

He said the police were suspecting involvement of five more suspects in the racket. "We will arrest all of them soon," Sakore said.

Modus of the gang

In November 2015, Salim Shaikh (34), a resident of Kondhwa, received a call from a person posing as a representative of a reputed financial firm. He offered help to Shaikh for obtaining personal loan.

Shaikh needed Rs 10 lakh for the surgery of his wife and immediately accepted the offer. The caller told him to first deposit some amount in a bank account as processing fee for the loan. He had told Shaikh to transfer the amount through National Electronics Fund Transfer (NEFT) or Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) to the given account.

Shaikh immediately transferred the amount. Thereafter, one person approached Shaikh and collected copies of documents like PAN card, electricity bill and bank statement.

After some days, the caller again demanded some money from Shaikh, claiming his documents were incomplete. Shaikh transferred the amount to the account.

In December last year, the caller again demanded money from Shaikh. This time, he pretended that the amount was needed for some government fees.

In total, Shaikh transferred Rs 1.17 lakh to the given account. When he did not get the loan, he started contacting the caller, who was unreachable. Shaikh then approached the cyber cell and lodged a complaint.

Inspector Pawar said the suspects also duped people by offering insurance policies. "While calling the people, they used a name similar to a well-known financial and insurance company. As a result, people fell prey to the tricks played by the fraudsters," he said.

Suspects misused courier companies

Sanjay Thenge, assistant police inspector of the cyber cell told TOI that the suspects used to tell their customers to transfer the amount to their accounts through NEFT or RTGS. If anyone was not familiar with these systems, the suspects used to give him the option of sending cheque to them. "For this the suspects were using courier companies in different cities other than Delhi," Thenge said.

The suspects used to contact the courier firm and to request them to receive their couriers as they were not having an office space in the city. "They used to tell the customer to send the cheque and the documents on the address of that courier firm. The suspects then used to request the courier firm to keep the documents with them and deposit the cheque in their account. They used to pay Rs 7,000 to the courier company for this service," Thenge said.

He said that the suspects had used several courier companies for their benefits. "The courier companies however, were not aware of the fraud," Thenge said.

The detection

Inspector Pawar said after receiving several complaints from people, the cyber cell started collecting information about the bank accounts of the suspects. "We found that all the nine accounts were opened with fake names," he said.

He said the police received a tip-off that Avnish, a bank employee, had helped the suspects in opening the accounts with fake documents. "Our team comprising assistant inspector Thenge and sub-inspector Pravin Swami rushed to Delhi and took Singh into custody," Pawar said.

"Singh would get Rs 15,000 to Rs 50,000 for helping the suspects in opening the accounts and alerting them about the banking loopholes," he said.

Pawar said Singh revealed the names of Manish and Tarun during the sustained interrogation. "We arrested the duo. Both of them worked in a BPO in Delhi. The duo and their other accomplices used to call people randomly and enquire if they needed loan or insurance cover," Pawar said. "We are yet to trace the kingpin of the gang," he added.

Cops to inform RBI

Sakore, the deputy commissioner of police (cyber), said the investigations revealed five major private sector and cooperative banks did not follow the KYC (know your customer) norms. "The fraudsters were taking advantage of it to dupe people," he said.

Sakore said the city police had decided to inform the RBI about it. "We will write to the RBI so that these banks start following the KYC norms," he added.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Search here anything you like