Cyber cops nab two from UP village for creating fake FB page of ADGP

Accused used biometric fingerprint scanner to withdraw money from the accounts of farmers
Nizar
Nizar

KOCHI: They are from a remotest village in Uttar Pradesh but their skills in social media and cyber world can match any cyber fraudster from a city in United States. 

A police team of Kochi Cyber Crime wing was in for a surprise when they reached this nondescript village called Chowki Bangar in Madhura district in UP after tracking the details of two UP natives who created a fake Facebook page of ADGP Vijay Sakhare and used the account to siphon off money from public.

Even  reaching the village itself was not an easy task as the team had to endure tough terrain and unwelcoming locals. Officials said the team managed to zero in on the accused after collecting details of 60 mobile phones, hundreds of SIM cards, multiple tower location details of phones and hundreds of IP addresses. The probe was coordinated by a team of police officials led by City Police Commissioner Nagaraju Chakilam. The other members in the team were Cyber Crime police station inspector Arun K S, senior civil police officers Ramesh S, Shihab E K and civil police officers Ajith Raj P and Arun R. 

Police said the arrested were identified as Nizar, 22, and Mushtaq Khan, 32. Probe revealed that though the village was situated in a remote corner bordering Uttar Pradesh and Haryana,  it was known for criminals who attack police personnel. Police said the background check of the two found that the duo were into similar frauds earlier. Interestingly, the second accused Mushtaq Khan was principal of a school in the village and also a local agent of Canara Bank in the village.

“The accused who had access to bank accounts of farmers in the village linked those accounts with his mobile number and used it as UPI accounts to commit  cyber crime frauds. He also used the biometric fingerprint scanner provided by the bank to withdraw the money from the accounts of the farmers,” said an official statement of Kochi City Police.

The probe found that the accused created the fake FB page of the ADGP and sent messages to people requesting money for charity. “We started tracking the accused with the help of a phone number linked to an UPI ID which was used to accept the money,” the officials said.

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