‘Digital house arrest’ conmen finally trapped by cyber cops
According to the police, the men are linked to Cambodian nationals and have duped over ₹1.5 crore from innocent people across India, the details of which are being ascertained.
Two men posing as officers of CBI, NIA and customs who had conned a retired PWD official of ₹30.5 lakh in a case of ‘digital house arrest’, over a video call in February, were arrested by Lucknow police’s cyber unit on Tuesday.
“The duo, identified as Rajeev Bhasin alias Raju, 38 and his aide Mohit Chopra alias Nanu, 36, were arrested from Agra. Police also seized multiple bank cheque books, SIM cards, phones, Aadhar, PAN and other cards,” said deputy commissioner of police, central, Raveena Tyagi.
According to the police, the men are linked to Cambodian nationals and have duped over ₹1.5 crore from innocent people across India, the details of which are being ascertained.
“We used digital surveillance and CDR analysis to reach the accused. Efforts are on to reach the foreign fraudsters as well,” said Brijesh Kumar Yadav, SHO, cyber crime police station.
It was found that “transactions worth ₹1.68 crore have taken place in the account of the fraudsters from 39 incidents in the country,” which include one each from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, six from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, two each from Haryana, Maharashtra, Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, and three each from Kerala and Karnataka,” the police said.
After the February incident, the complainant Niranjan Singh, 73 an Indira Nagar resident lodged an FIR was registered at the cyber crime police station at Vibhuti Khand under sections of the IT Act and IPC sections 420 (cheating) after which a manhunt was launched to nab the culprits.
Those arrested told the police that they used to open current accounts in the name of fake firms and send the account details to fraudsters sitting abroad on WhatsApp and Telegram. Fraudulent transactions were done on these accounts and an ‘AtOtp Forwarder’ app was used to send the OTP of the transaction to the fraudster sitting abroad.
“These people along with their associates were directly connected to foreign fraudsters. The foreign crooks used to transfer their share to the accounts specified by these two locals,” said police in a press note.
WHAT IS DIGITAL ARREST?
According to the in-charge of cyber crime police station in Vibhuti Khand, Brijesh Kumar Yadav, who is also a cyber expert said ‘digital arrest’ does not exist in law. The victims are forced to stay visible over Skype or other video conferencing platforms until the demands of the fraudsters are met. The fraudsters use the background of a police station or forged documents to make people believe them.
WHAT TO DO?
DCP, central, Raveena Taygi, urged that any person claiming to be police or any other official, one should always confirm their identity from the department concerned.
Doubt their identity when they ask for money or any sort of payment.
Report such cases either on dial 112 and 1930 at national cyber crime portal.
