A 21-year-old resident of Jharkhand was recently arrested for allegedly swindling money from several persons, including residents of Tamil Nadu, by sending phishing links to their mobile phones.
The accused, identified as Akash Mandal, aged 21, of Margodih village, Giridih district, Jharkhand, is reportedly linked to a racket involved in cyber crimes. A special team was deputed to nab the accused from Jharkhand. Following this, Akash, reportedly a key member of a cyber crime racket, was brought to Chennai.
The State Cyber Crime Investigation Centre (SCCIC) of the State Cyber Crime Wing, Tamil Nadu Police, launched an investigation based on an online complaint lodged recently by a resident of Purasavakkam, Chennai. The complainant, Thelma Caroline, said she received a message from an unknown mobile number asking her to update her PAN card details through a link. Failure to update the details would result in her India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) account getting blocked, the message read.
The complainant clicked on the link, following which she was directed to a webpage where she entered details for account number, customer ID, PAN card, user credentials and OTP password. Before she could put the police in the picture, online fraudsters had defrauded her of ₹25,000 from her IPPB account.
An inquiry revealed that 308 complaints related to cyber crimes received in the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal from Tamil Nadu pointed to a similar modus operandi. Thirteen of them were found to have been traced to the mobile phone number of the accused. Akash is suspected to have committed another 26 cyber crimes in other States using the same mobile phone number.
Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Cyber Crime Wing, Sanjay Kumar, said, “The investigation revealed the involvement of different groups. A key suspect has been arrested. Further investigation is under way.”
After analysing call records, the police traced the whereabouts of Akash. Later, a special team nabbed him. He has been remanded to judicial custody after being produced in a court. The mobile phone he was using was seized.
Mr. Kumar cautioned the public against clicking on links sent from unknown numbers.
