The cyber cell unit of the Mumbai crime branch has arrested five persons from different parts of the country over the last week for allegedly duping affluent individuals from the city under the pretext of offering a “premium elite credit card”. While three accused were arrested from Tamil Nadu, two others were held in Delhi and Haryana respectively. Police said that since last year, as many as 16 cases and several other police complaints were lodged against these five accused by people from whom they have allegedly pocketed around Rs 1.2 crore. According to police officials, the five arrested persons have been identified as Nandkumar M Chandrasekhar (42), John David Raj (35), Pavathrani Ramki Parthasarathy (33), Ayyappan Murugsen (35) and Premsagar Ramswaroop (23). Explaining their modus operandi, police officials said that initially the group of fraudsters would illegally seek details of the victims from retail stores of high-end cars. One of them would then reach out to the complainant posing as a relationship manager of CitiBank Diners club and offer them a “premium elite credit card”. The accused would then promise to facilitate a free-membership of South Mumbai's Wellington Club for their targets in lieu of taking the card. “After luring the victims, the frauds would send a link to a form and ask them to fill it. With this, they would obtain their personal details like names, addresses, Aadhaar card and Pan card numbers,” said an officer, adding, “Subsequently, during the conversation, they would gauge whether their prospective victim owned an Android or an iPhone and accordingly, send over a phone under the pretext of completing the authentication process.” The victims were further encouraged to insert their SIM cards into the new phone that had been couriered to their house and click on some applications after which the accused would allegedly access all the details, including their bank accounts, through the installed applications such as DOT Secure and SecurEnvoy Authenticator. The accused would then use that money to buy gold coins and iPhones on the victim's name and subsequently, sell them at a cheaper value. One such alleged fraud was reported at cyber police station in BKC on January 31 wherein a businessman was duped of Rs 9.81 lakh between December 24, 2022 and January 2, 2023 following which the police registered a case. During the course of investigation, the officials came to know that 16 cases of cheating were registered at different police stations of victims being defrauded using similar modus operandi. As many as 1600 SIM cards were used in the crimes, said an official. “While scrutinising the bank accounts details and other leads obtained through technical evidence, we identified Chandrasekhar, Raj and Parthasarathy as probable suspects and laid a trap near their respective residences in Tiruvallur and Ambattur districts in Tamil Nadu,” said an officer. After their roles were identified, the trio was placed under arrest. “Soon after their arrest, we came to know about Murugsen who they claim was the mastermind after which he was caught from Delhi Airport,” said an officer. Subsequently, Ramswaroop who allegedly provided the SIM cards was also arrested from Haryana. Another accused in the case – Ashish Ravindranathan – is still wanted. “We are trying to trace him and have learnt that Murugsen and Ravindranathan have been booked for similar fraud in the name of American Express credit card,” said an officer.
