Four arrested for online fraud

Credit, debit cardholders were tricked into sharing details

10DEL ONLINE FRAUD

Four men were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly running a cyber fraud racket, the police said on Wednesday.

The police said that the men used to trick credit and debit cardholders into sharing their card details and password after offering them their services to redeem cash against reward points earned by them on their cards.

The fraudulently obtained details were further used for shopping and illegal money transactions, the police said.

Sujit Singh, 22, a former employee of an online food order and delivery company, Rishabh Saxena, 19, a BCA degree holder, Pankaj, 29, who earlier worked as a contractual employee in the credit card section of a bank, and Rakesh Kumar, 35, an accountant working at a petrol pump were arrested.

“Twelve cell phones, six debit cards and 17 SIM cards issued on fake documents were seized from the arrested persons,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Nupur Prasad.

‘Bank executive’

Ms. Prasad said the arrests came following investigation into a case filed on March 26, on the complaint of Rocky, who lost ₹60,000 after sharing his credit card details to a person over the phone. The person had introduced himself as an executive from the bank’s credit card department.

Rocky told the police that he was not suspicious as the caller had introduced himself as an executive from the bank’s credit card department and he knew the last four digits of the victim’s credit card. The caller told Rocky that his card had 20,000 reward points worth ₹10,000, which he can redeem before the offer expires in a few hours.

“As Rocky agreed, he received three one-time password (OTPs) on his cell phone number and the caller tricked him into sharing the OTPs with him. Within seconds he received three messages regarding withdrawal of ₹60,000 in three transactions from his account,” said the DCP.

Virtual wallets

During investigation, the police learnt that the withdrawn money was transferred to various virtual wallets. They also learnt that the virtual money was encashed at a petrol pump. Investigators obtained details of the wallet holders and identified the real beneficiary of the cheated money as Rakesh Kumar.

“We arrested Kumar and his interrogation led to the arrest of his three accomplices,” said Ms. Prasad, adding that two more suspects — Vikas and Pawan — are still absconding.

The police said that each of the accused had a different task to perform.