4 held in Rs 2.47 lakh cyber fraud case

New Delhi, Jul 14 (PTI) Four people were arrested for allegedly operating a mule bank account network used in a Rs 2.47 lakh cyber fraud by impersonating a courier company executive, Delhi Police said on Tuesday. The case came to light after a deputy general manager of a private company and a resident of Babarpur in northeast Delhi, lodged a complaint and an FIR was registered and further investigation was taken up. According to the police, the complainant received a call from a fraudster posing as a courier executive. The caller allegedly convinced him to activate call and SMS forwarding on his mobile phone, enabling the fraudsters to receive banking OTPs and withdraw Rs 2.47 lakh from his account. "During the investigation, police traced Rs 80,000 of the cheated amount to a bank account belonging to one of the accused, Mohammad Arbaz Daniyal alias Labbu. Financial analysis, technical surveillance and field verification led investigators to identify a network of facilitators operating mule bank accounts across Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh," a senior police officer said. A police team conducted raids in Udham Singh Nagar, Lucknow, Mirzapur and Sultanpur and arrested Arbaz, Jimmy Bathla, Abdul Wadood and Aniket Verma. During interrogation, Arbaz disclosed that he had opened the bank account on Jimmy's instructions in exchange for Rs 50,000. Jimmy is accused of handing over the account to Abdul Wadood for Rs 1 lakh, while the investigation revealed that Wadood later supplied the account to Aniket Verma, who allegedly sold the banking credentials to cyber fraudsters through social media. Police recovered four mobile phones from the accused. Further investigation is underway to identify other members of the interstate syndicate, trace the proceeds and recover the remaining defrauded amount. PTI BM APL