KOCHI: The Ernakulam Rural Police on Friday busted a major cyber spoofing racket and arrested its kingpin from Jharkhand who allegedly syphoned off Rs 1.5 lakh from the bank account of an Ernakulam native using a fake website of IndiGo airlines. The arrested person is identified as Kalmudheen Ansari, 27, of Devigar District Jharkhand. The related incident took place when the Pallikara native was trying to extend the air-ticket he had earlier bought through this fake website.
“The members of the racket contacted the victim claiming to be representatives of IndiGo airline and assured to help him for extending the travel ticket. To take the victim into confidence, the accused persons sent the link of a bogus website which looked similar to the website of the airline company,” the police officer at Kunnathunad police station said.
Later the fraudsters asked the victim to install several corrupt apps on his mobile phone. “After installing the apps, the accused persons could access the entire mobile details of the victim including the banking applications installed in the mobile. Using spoofing method, they diverted the money to the tune of Rs 1.5 lakhs from the bank account of the victim,” said the officer.The cyber cell team of Ernakulam rural police and policemen of Kunnathunad police station started the probe after registering an FIR on the basis of the complaint received from the victim.
“We were able to track the bank account to which the fund was diverted. Later, we also could trace out the location of the mobile phones using which the racketeers contacted the victim. Soon we dispatched a team to Jharkhand. The team was stationed there for a week and arrested the accused,” said a police officer.
From the investigation, the police team found that the gang has cheated several innocent people using the same method. “We found that a fund Rs 6 lakhs came to the account of the accused person in last two months. We suspect the money came after cheating some other persons from other parts of the country. The other members of the racket have to be identified and arrested,” said the officer.
The police have recovered Rs one lakh, in possession of Ansari. Similarly, 6 mobile phones, 4 SIM cards, PAN card and ATM card have been seized. The accused was produced before the magistrate court and was remanded.
The police will seek custody of the accused for further interrogation. Ernakulam Rural Police chief Rahul R Nair said as internet banking, banking apps and UPI based mobile transactions are becoming popular, the people should remain alert about suspicious cyber activities.
Cyber crime on the rise
The number of cyber crime cases is on the rise in Kerala since the past three years. In 2018 as many as 415 cyber crime cases were registered. In 2017 the same was 300 cases and in 2016 it was 278 cases.