Cyber crime wing of Cyberabad busts online fraud ring, 4 arrested

The Cyber Crime police wing of Cyberabad arrested four persons for fraud using bulk SMS services, and fake websites among other methods using the database of popular e-commerce and telemarketing companies.

The police began looking out for the accused after receiving a complaint on November 13, 2019. The victim had alleged that after making a purchase on a prominent e-commerce website, she was contacted on her mobile phone that she had won a lottery, claimed to be run by the e-commerce company, worth Rs 7 lakhs or a car as the winning amount.

The fraudsters had then extracted close to Rs 2.3 lakhs, which she was asked to deposit in various bank accounts, from her stating that these were payments for various charges for claiming the final prize.

During the course of investigations, it was revealed that the prime accused, Sandeep bought database and bulk message service and website service from Tausif Ahmed and Vikas Kumar. Manikchand Paswan, a relative of the prime accused, also used to assist him in contacting gullible persons and extracting money from them.

The police also seized 12 mobile phones, 2 laptops, a car, fake PAN, Voter ID, Aadhar and fake ID cards of e-commerce company from their possession along with 19 sim cards and 4 debit cards from the accused.