Haryana Police unearth Rs.100cr pan-India cyber fraud in Nuh, breaks network of scammers

The criminals cheated people across the country with fake SIM, Aadhaar cards, etc., and deposited money in fake bank accounts to avoid arrest

PGurus Newsdesk

May 10, 2023

The criminals cheated people across the country with fake SIM, Aadhaar cards, etc. and deposited money in fake bank accounts to avoid arrest

Rs.100-crore cyber frauds busted, 28,000 loose money to job offers, sextortion

In a breakthrough against cybercrime in Nuh district, the Haryana Police have unearthed a pan-India criminal network linked to about 28,000 cases of cyber fraud across the country, police said. The total amount of money allegedly defrauded by these cyber fraudsters is around Rs.100 crore.

The criminals duped people from all across the country but mainly those from Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

According to the police, these criminals cheated people across the country with fake SIM, Aadhaar cards, etc., and deposited money in fake bank accounts to avoid arrest.

The investigation also revealed that about 219 accounts of private and public sector banks and 140 UPI accounts were being used for committing cyber fraud.

These bank accounts were mainly found to be activated online and that too by defrauding innocent people on the pretext of providing a job and then taking their credentials such as Aadhar Card, PAN Card, and mobile number, and getting an online KYC done.

Apart from this, 347 SIM cards activated from Haryana, West Bengal, Assam, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, North-east, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka circles of telecom companies have also been unearthed which were being used by these criminals for cybercrime.

Superintendent of Police, Nuh, Varun Singla, while addressing a press conference on Wednesday informed that on the intervening night of April 27 and 28, 102 teams of 5,000 policemen had raided 14 villages of the district simultaneously.

During this raid, around 125 suspected hackers were detained. Of these, 65 accused were identified and arrested. All of the accused were produced in the concerned courts and taken on remand for seven to 11 days.

Following the arrest, to unearth the whole nexus, Haryana Director General of Police, P K Agrawal, deployed a team of 40 cyber experts from across the state in connection with the questioning of these cybercriminals.

Sustained interrogation of the cybercriminals apprehended was thus carried out with the help of the cyber experts and intricate details regarding the modus operandi being adopted by the cybercriminals as well as detailed information about sources of fake SIM cards and bank accounts was obtained.

The mobile phones and SIM cards seized during the raid were also technically examined and relevant details were also sought from TSPs/ ISPs, banks, NPCI, UPI Intermediaries, UIDAI, DoT, social media platforms Facebook, WhatsApp, OLX, etc.

The assistance of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre of the Ministry of Home Affairs was also requested to provide the linkages of fake bank accounts, SIMs, mobile phones, etc. used by these cybercriminals with the cybercrime complaints received across the country.

During this analysis, it has been revealed that cybercriminals have so far defrauded around 28,000 innocent people to the tune of more than Rs.100 crore from all states and union territories across the country.

Around 1,346 FIRs have been registered against these cyber fraudsters across the country. The details of these cybercriminals are being sent to concerned senior police authorities of these states to fix the culpability of these cybercriminals.

During the investigation, the source of fake SIMs and bank accounts is mainly linked to the district of Bharatpur, Rajasthan.

“Sixteen cases registered in Nuh district, 250 wanted cybercriminals working as co-accused to the cybercriminals apprehended have also been identified, of which 20 are from Rajasthan, 19 from Uttar Pradesh and 211 from Haryana. The cybercriminals, who are in the age group of 18-35 years, have revealed that they normally used to work in a group of 3-4 persons,” the Nuh SP said.

“The cybercriminals have also revealed that fake bank accounts, fake SIM Cards, mobile phones, cash withdrawal/ disbursal, and technical services such as posting an advertisement on social media websites were provided by only a few individuals in a village after charging their commission fee ranging from 5 to 50 percent of the fraud amount,” Singla added.

The cybercriminals mainly used common service centers for cash withdrawal while some others used ATMs installed in different villages for the same.

The SP said the accused usually spent the cheated amount on their house construction, bikes, saloon, and their day-to-day meet. “With this operation, we successfully break the chain of suppliers who provide fake SIM cards, bank accounts, and mobile phones to these criminals,” he said.

Giving details of the modus-operandi, Singla said that these fraudsters used to commit the fraud by luring the victims with attractive offers of sale on products like bikes, cars, mobile phones, etc. by posting misleading advertisements on Facebook Bazaar/ OLX.

“The unsuspecting victim then calls the fraudster on the given fake mobile number and the fraudster cheats the victim on the pretext of courier charges, transportation of the product, etc. but the product never gets delivered.”

These fraudsters also posted an advertisement on social media platforms offering work from home mainly related to packaging of Natraj pencils, promising an earning of Rs.30,000 per month and cheating innocent people on the pretext of registration fees, packing materials, courier fees, etc,” the Nuh SP said.

The cybercriminals were also duping victims through sextortion crime by creating attractive profiles on social media platforms and luring the victims to come on a video chat where they carry out screen recordings of the victims in compromising positions and then extort huge sums of money from them.

“Sensing the seriousness of cybercrime, 102 police teams were constituted by the Director General of Police, Haryana, which conducted coordinated and simultaneous raids at 320 targeted locations with a 5000-strong force. During the raids, 166 fake Aadhar cards, 5 PAN cards, 128 ATM cards, 66 mobile phones, 99 SIMs, 5 POS machines, 3 laptops, etc. were recovered.”

The police are working on the multiple leads provided by the cybercriminals arrested in this operation and further raids are being carried out to nab the criminals spread over multiple states, who have since absconded from their villages,” Singla added.

[With Inputs from IANS]

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