BENGALURU: In an unusual instance of fraud in the city, after the police launched a probe in the case, they found the complainant to be the perpetrator. Bhaskar, an 18-year-old college student from Mudalapalya, was arrested on Monday at the Cyber Crime Police Station. Bhaskar had allegedly stolen his cousin Madhu’s ATM card and created a Paytm account in his friend Sanjay K’s name to siphon off the money.
According to the police, Bhaskar transferred Rs 16,000 from his cousin’s account to the paytm account and purchased a mobile phone on an e-commerce site. A week after the incident, unaware of his cousin’s actions, Madhu noticed through an SMS on his mobile phone that the money was transferred from his account to an unknown Paytm account.
Madhu and Bhaskar then approached the police last week and filed a complaint. “Bhaskar did not even mention that some items were purchased through the account,” police inspector M Chandrappa said. Bhaskar then visited the station on Monday to find out the status of the case. Unaware that the police had already cracked it, he landed straight in their grip, and is now in judicial custody.
“Though the Paytm account was in his friend’s name, the items purchased had a delivery address and a mobile number which belonged to Bhaskar. After we found out that the number belonged to Bhaskar, he visited the station for an update at the right time and we were able to nab him on the spot,” Chandrappa added.
According to the police, they see about two cases per day involving similar cheating carried out by unknown persons, while the number of cases involving known persons is 5-6 a month. “Unknown persons either hack the account to get their mobile number, give the victim a call, pose as a bank manager and get the OTP. Known persons get the OTP directly since the victim may give their phone to the criminal out of trust,” Chandrappa said.
Case Studies
Last month, a 23-year-old college student in Anekal was cheated of Rs 50,000 by tech-savvy criminals. He shared his OTP after he was promised US dollars in exchange of Indian rupee. In another incident, a driver gained the trust of his boss for 10 years and was in charge of purchasing household goods by using his ATM card. He transferred Rs 47,000 from the card tohis Paytm account without the owner’s knowledge.