Navi Mumbai: Cyber Police Arrest 32-Year-Old Key Accused In Multi-State Loan Fraud Gang In Delhi; 4 Accomplices Still At Large

Navi Mumbai: One of the accused belonging to an inter-state gang of cyber criminals, wanted by Chattisgarh, Telangana and Maharashtra police, has been nabbed by Navi Mumbai Cyber police from Delhi.

The Zone II Cyber Cell police were investigating a fraud that was registered by a 26 year old lady from Kalamboli in the month of July wherein she was cheated of Rs 14 lakh in the name of personal loan. During the investigation, they got technical leads that lead them to Delhi to one of the accused identified as Ashiq Ali alias Arif (32).

Four more accomplices of Arif among which one is an IT Professional at a MNC in Gurgaon, are wanted. “We are now looking for the four wanted accused,” inspector Deepali Patil from Zone II Cyber Cell, said. According to the police, the modus of the gang was to use a new number for every new target and register their names on True caller as ‘Axis Bank’ to con the person. Once the call is answered, they would take the personal details and using the netbanking, would apply for a loan on their name and transfer the amount to different accounts.

“They would engross the victim in talks and get all the bank details and simultaneously start operating net banking. The caller would tell them that their loan is sanctioned and they would have to pay EMI. When the victim would say that he had not applied for any loan, in the pretext of cancelling the loan, they would generate various OTPs to transfer the amount in the bank account of the victims and during the call, they would ask for them. The victim from Kalamboli was in her office when she got the call and when she saw truecaller notification as ‘Axis Bank’ she believed and answered the call,” Patil said.

According to police, in the gang, each one of them has a job to do. Arif and another wanted accused made calls. There is one designated accused who was given the job of sourcing various sim cards and phones to be used for the fraud. Arif would decide the budget to be spent on the phones and simcards and would provide the same to the accused who was assigned to purchase. Arif is currently in jail custody, said Patil.

The accused had also sent a fake id card of a Axis bank employee to the victim to make her believe that he was indeed an employee. The gang was in preparation to impersonate themselves as hdfc bankers and continue the cheating when Arif got arrested.