New Delhi, December 23
The Delhi Police arrested two cyber fraudsters for allegedly running a phishing scam by impersonating as officials from the Delhi Jal Board (DJB).
The accused were identified as Deepak Kumar, 22, and Pappu Ray, 25, would exploit their victims by threatening to disconnect their water supply.
Deepak from his residence in Kirari Suleman Nagar, while Pappu was caught in Dumka in Jharkhand.
The police received a complaint from a 52-year-old woman on October 22. In her complaint, the victim recalled receiving a text message claiming her water connection would be disconnected unless she updated her account on the Jal Board website. This was followed by a WhatsApp message containing a link to download an APK file named ‘Jal Jeevan’.
The message also instructed her to pay a fee of Rs 9 to update her account. On following the instructions, for which she needed to enter her banking details, she saw quick back-to-back unauthorised withdrawals totaling Rs 4.73 lakh from her account.
The police probed the bank transactions and found the mobile number from which the WhatsApp text was received showed it originated from Jharkhand. The police also tracked the money trail and pinpointed two accounts where the stolen money had been transferred. The police found one account making different transactions from Delhi.
DCP (South), Ankit Chauhan stated that the duo were trapping multiple people by using fake messages and malicious apps. Pappu impersonated as a DJB official and communicated with the victims to create a sense of urgency. Deepak handled withdrew the siphoned off money using credit cards and transferring the funds to multiple accounts.
The police found sum of Rs 99,000 and Rs 5.32 lakh in the accounts of the accused being fraudulently taken from victims. The investigation led to the recovery of Rs 4.6 lakh frozen in multiple bank accounts linked to the duo.
The duo has been booked under Section 318 (cheating) and 319 (cheating by personation) of the BNS.
