The city police on Monday arrested four persons on charge of indulging in online rummy fraud.
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The arrested have been identified as Kare Tata Rao, Koviri Jagannadham and Yejjala Bandayya, all three from Rambilli mandal, and Vakada Janakiram from Pedagantyada.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Aishwarya Rastogi said that Tata Rao, the main accused, owned a cellphone retail shop and he along with the others had been registering SIM cards in the name of others by using their Know Your Customer (KYC) details.
Mr. Rastogi said that Tata Rao normally targeted people from below poverty line and by paying ₹200 to ₹300, he was acquiring their KYC details. Once the SIM was registered, Tata Rao would sell them to people who play rummy at around ₹3,000, Mr. Rastogi said.
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As playing rummy is banned in the State he would use a GPS masking app to show that the player was from another State, said Mr. Rastogi.
Tata Rao along with the other accused would also play rummy and according to his confession, all the four accused would join a table of six and would sit together by masking their GPS location and defraud others by sharing their cards. By doing so, the accused would make money to the tune of ₹40,000 to ₹45,000 per month, the DCP said.
Since Tata Rao was a retailer, he had access to Mitra App and using that he would create Airtel Payments bank account with the new SIM cards to receive payments from various online rummy sites such as Rummy Culture and Rummy Circle, said the DCP.
Since PAN card is necessary for withdrawing money from online rummy sites, he collected the cards from selected customers and obtained new cards who did not have one. He would apply on their behalf by giving his and his associates email IDs, said the DCP.
The police seized about 25 to 30 SIM cards from Tata Rao and said that he had been in this business for the last two months. Further investigation is on.
Mr. Rastogi cautioned people from giving their KYC details to anyone and alert the police if they suspect something was wrong.