MUMBAI: Exposing a new modus operandi by cyber fraudsters, D B Marg police arrested six members of an inter-state gang that would edit addresses on electricity bills and other documents, get new Aadhaar cards using these addresses and open bank accounts.
This came to light while cops were probing bank accounts where a senior citizen's Rs3.9 lakh was transferred by cyber criminals.
In two weeks police arrested Birendrakumar Mandal, 22, Ashok Mandal, 30, Rohit Mandal, 31, Vijay Mandal, 23 (residents of Girdih district in Jharkhand), Kaleemuddin Shaikh, 35, an Andheri RTO agent and Mukesh Jha, 30, who runs an Aadhaar card centre in Kandivali, were part of the gang.
Police on January 6 registered a cheating complaint after the woman told them she got a call where the caller said he was calling from a private SIM card company and asked to update KYC details of the woman and her husband. He told the woman to download AnyDesk, a screen-sharing app on her phone. The woman followed the instructions, filled in bank details and was told to recharge her mobile for Rs10. As oon she did this, Rs3.9 lakh was deducted from her account.
She approached police and investigators stopped Rs61,000.
Probing the bank account where money had been transferred, police found that it belonged to Birendrakumar Mondal. But his address was fake. Police obtained CCTV footage of the bank where Birendrakumar could be seen withdrawing money from the the bank's ATM. His identity was established while police was collecting human intelligence. Some money was diverted to another account in Jharkhand. Investigators using the technical and human intelligence laid a trap in Santacruz, when it heard that the accused would be coming to Khardanda for opening account in another bank.
