Two cyber fraudsters were arrested on Saturday for allegedly organizing a phishing scam by impersonating Delhi Jal Board (DJB) officials.
Police said that the accused Deepak Kumar (22) and Pappu Ray (25) were exploiting the victim by distributing banking certificates by threatening to cut off water supply. According to the police, during the investigation, Rs 4.6 lakh deposited in several bank accounts linked to the two persons were recovered.
The issue came to the attention of the police after a 52-year-old woman filed a complaint on October 22. In the complaint, the victim recalled that she received a text message saying that her water connection would be cut off if she did not update her Jal account. Board website. This was followed by a WhatsApp message containing a link to download an APK file named ‘Jal Jeevan’.
In the message, he was instructed to pay a fee of Rs 9 to update his account, police said. Following the instructions, which required him to enter his banking details, he quickly witnessed an unauthorized withdrawal of Rs 4.73 lakh from his account.
The Cyber Crime Unit immediately launched a detailed investigation. “During investigation… relevant details of bank transactions were analyzed and verified at length. Further, analysis of the mobile number from which the WhatsApp text was received showed that it was from Jharkhand,” DCP (South) Ankit Chauhan said.
The police also tracked the money trail and found two accounts where the stolen money was transferred. One account was transacting in different parts of Delhi, police said.
The police zeroed in on the location of the suspects and later arrested Deepak from his house in Kirari Suleman Nagar while Pappu was arrested from Dumka in Jharkhand. During interrogation, they allegedly confessed to committing several cyber crimes using fake messages and malicious apps to dupe their victims.
According to the police, Ray impersonated a DJB officer and chatted with the victims to create a sense of urgency. Deepak handled the financial side by withdrawing money using a credit card and transferring funds to multiple accounts.
When the police dug deeper, they discovered that the two were linked to another case in which a resident of Greater Kailash II had defrauded a resident of Greater Kailash II of Rs 1.3 lakh using the same modus operandi. The police also found more cases linked to the accused, in which Rs 99,000 and Rs 5.32 lakh were allegedly taken fraudulently.
Police said further investigations are underway to identify other possible victims and accomplices in the scam. Both have been booked under Sections 318 (cheating) and 319 (cheating in person) of the BNS.
Why should you buy our membership?
You want to be the smartest in the room.
You want access to our award-winning journalism.
You don’t want to be confused and misinformed.
Choose your subscription package