HYDERABAD: Probing the case of a phishing call in which a retired government servant lost `1.8 lakh, Rachakonda police arrested two persons from Bhubhaneshwar for benefiting from the fraud. The police also unearthed the organised racket where the cyber crooks were paying money to the recharge centres to get database of the mobile phone users across the country. In September this year, the retired employee from city, an octogenarian, received calls from a stranger claiming to be SBI’s Mumbai branch manager asking to share details of his debit card and bank account for verification. The old man believing the stranger shared all the details including OTP, CVV and expiry date of the debit card. Minutes after that, the octogenarian received alerts on debit of `1.8 lakh from his bank account, and he lodged a complaint with the Rachakonda cyber crime police.
The police then collected details of the transactions done from the victim’s account and found that the money was transferred into various bank accounts and then to mobile wallets of individuals. On sending letters to the respective companies, only M-Paisa responded and shared the details of recharges done through the wallets.A team then went to Bhubaneshwar and enquired with the people who received mobile recharges. It was then it came to light that the recharges have been done by the accused Dilip Kumar Nayak (21) and his friend Akash Mohanty (23), who runs a mobile recharge store. Later, the police nabbed them.
“The duo from Bhubaneshwar was taken into custody for questioning. Dilip and Akash earlier ran a franchise of Vodafone, but ran into losses and established the recharge centre. Meanwhile, their friend Tapan Panda has informed about the agents from Jharkhand and West Bengal, who gives 15 per cent commission for sharing the mobile numbers of Vodafone customers,” said Rachakonda cybercrimes ACP S Harinath.
The ACP said that the gang operating in Jharkhand and West Bengal has agents including Dilip and Akash across the country including in the Telugu states to share the mobile numbers of the customers. “The victim’s number in this case was shared by another agent, but not by the duo from Bhubaneshwar. The arrested duo received `13,000 from `1.8 lakh siphoned from the city resident’s account,” said ACP Harinath.Further probe has to be done to apprehend the prime accused and Vodafone company is also making plans to change the current recharge mechanism.