Chennai police make breakthrough in phone fraud case, nab two middlemen in Delhi

CHENNAI: In a breakthrough in the case pertaining to swindling of money through the credit cards of a West Mambalam resident, the anti-bank fraud wing of the Central Crime Branch has arrested two middlemen from New Delhi.

The arrested suspects were identified as Atul Kumar of Johripur and Kunal of Ghaziabad.

The incident happened in January last year and the CCB had launched an investigation based on a complaint filed by the victim, Govindraj.

Police sources said that telephone scammers had posed as bank staff and sought details of credit cards and OTPs from Govindraj in the name of offering gifts.

Soon after Govindraj shared the details, the money was swindled from two of his cards.

One of the officers who was part of the eight-member team that camped in New Delhi and made the arrests told The New Indian Express that the scammers had used Govindraj's credit cards to pay electricity bills of consumers in the national capital.

The details of the power consumers were being provided to the scammers by the two middlemen for a 15 per cent commission.

The officer said that the duo received cash from consumers claiming to pay the bills, kept their commission, and gave the rest (85 per cent) of the amount to the scammers, who made the payments through credit card details they stole from unsuspecting people.
     
"The entire process was formulated to secure the identity of the middlemen and fraudsters," the officer said, adding that making direct payments would sound the death knell for their shady activities.    

Kumar and Kunal were produced before a Karkarduma court in the national capital for transit remand, produced before Egmore CCB court, and remanded in judicial custody.

The team is staying put in New Delhi for further investigations and to nab others involved in phone frauds.

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