NOIDA: With the arrest of two men allegedly linked to Jamtara-based cyber cheats, the Uttar Pradesh police on Friday busted an online racket in which conmen duped people by taking remote access of their mobile phones.
The cyber cheats are using applications which give them access of mobile phones from remote location, including access to one-time passwords (OTPs) being sent on a user's number without them realising it, they said.
In the wake of the finding, the Cyber Wing of the state police has urged people not to use "toll free helpline numbers" of banks or other services published on Google under the "ad" category.
Officials of the Cyber Police Station, Noida, have arrested two men, identified as Mohammed Riyaz and Liaq Ahmed, linked to the gang of thugs based in Jamtara, Jharkhand, Superintendent of Police (UP Cyber Police) Triveni Singh said.
He said the accused were held as part of a probe into a Rs 5.97 lakh online fraud with daughter of a retired CISF official, who lives in Ghaziabad.
"The daughter lives abroad. Her father approached the police in January this year with a complaint that his daughter wanted to start internet banking facility of her ICICI bank account for which she used a toll free number of the bank given on a Google search page," Singh said.
"Later she got a call back from a mobile number in which the person on the other side identified himself as a bank representative and convinced her into downloading a mobile application -- Quick Support -- for the work," he told reporters in a virtual press conference.
Soon, the woman lost Rs 5.97 lakh which were in her bank account linked to her mobile phone number registered with the bank, he added.
The case was investigated by the Cyber Police Station, Noida which has arrested the accused duo and found out their link with the infamous Jamtara gang, the officer said.
Inspector Reeta Yadav, who led the team which arrested the duo from Meerut, said the accused are part of a larger network and worked on the basis of commission.
Riyaz is a post graduate diploma holder in computer applications, while Liaq has studied till Class 5.
Mostly, they called people on the pretext of providing them bank loans easily, she said.
"Their job was to call back potential targets and convince them into downloading the remote access tools (RAT), which gave them access to the mobile phones of the victims without them even realising it," Yadav said.
"Once the duo gained access to the victim's phone, they would transfer their funds into multiple bank accounts that they opened using identities of people living in villages. This money was withdrawn by their masters while they got a commission to keep," she said.
Riyaz got 20 per cent and Liaq got 10 per cent as commission amount for every victim from their master, who has been identified too, Yadav said.
The two have been active in the crime for around five years now and have duped at least 150 people and made over Rs 35 lakh from cheating, the inspector said.
The cyber police has also appealed to people, especially those in rural areas, to not share their bank account details with unverified persons to avoid fraud risk.
The accused have been booked under Indian Penal Code section 420 (cheating) and under provisions of the Information Technology Act, police added.