Delhi: Four men arrested for Rs 19-lakh cyber scam

“A man posing as a Mumbai Financial Task Force official joined the call and asked for access to the victim’s bank account details to investigate potential money laundering activities. After getting his internet banking details, (the accused) took a pre-approved loan of Rs 19,94,101 from the complainant’s account,” said DCP (Southwest) Surendra Chaudhary.

According to police, the money trail showed the amount was transferred to an AU Bank account registered in the name of Nivik Services, Vikhroli Mumbai; its proprietor was Dharmendra Kumar, 32, a resident of Peepli.

“The IP addresses were tracked and it was found that the account was being run by a man in Rajasthan’s Hiyaliya village,” a police officer said.

On September 29, police arrested one Mukesh Vaishnav from Ajmer. “He was a part of a syndicate that took youngsters and men without jobs from Rajasthan to Pune and Mumbai and opened current accounts using their credentials in the name of Nivik Services, a fake company. Kumar was shown as proprietor of this firm and three accounts were opened in his name,” the DCP said.

On October 2, on the instance of Mukesh, one Dinesh Kumar, 21, from Jalore in Rajasthan was arrested after a raid. Police said Dinesh handled all the mule accounts made by Mukesh and sold them to fraudsters from South Asian countries. “Dinesh used to sell accounts to Telegram fraudsters who made the calls and duped people via digital arrest and other methods,” an officer said.

On the instance of Dinesh, Dharmendra and Deepak Chauhan were arrested on October 11. An officer said most of the cheated amount was taken out using cryptocurrency.

“Dharmendra’s current account already showed transactions worth Rs 1.62 crore even before the victim was duped. People are advised to not entertain calls that ask them to share their bank details. Even if the caller claims to be from the police, one should first report to the nearest station,” DCP Chaudhary said.