The accused provided fake e-wallets to criminals who sent women’s pix to unsuspecting victims and then blackmailed them
BENGALURU:
CID sleuths from Karnataka have arrested a three-member gang which blackmailed and extorted money from people posing as young women on social media.
In a media release on Saturday, the CID said there has been a sharp rise in such incidents across the country wherein cyber criminals, posing as women, befriend unsuspecting persons on social media platforms. The victims are persuaded to post their own intimate pictures, after which the fraudsters extort money from the victims by threatening to circulate their private images and videos on social media.
The police team visited Nuh, Punhana, Ghurwali, Palwala and other places in Haryana and arrested three persons, Mujahid, Iqbal and Asif, who were providing SIM cards and e-wallets to criminals involved in sex extortion and other cyber frauds. In the process, the Karnataka team faced resistance from locals who were supporting the accused persons.
The investigating team, led by Nayaz Ahmed, Police Inspector, Cybercrime Division, CID, included Rajesh, Detective Sub-Inspector, Shobha, WHC, Shivakumar, CPC, Munikrishna, CPC and Munirathna, CPC.
The modus operandi
• Accused Mujahid obtained POS agency/retailership from mobile service providers by providing fake documents for the purpose of activating over 5,000 SIM cards linked with wallets belonging to reputed digital payment providers.
• Accused Asif is a sub-agent for Mujahid and supplied photographs of persons to create fake documents and activate SIM cards based on these documents.
• Accused Iqbal runs a photo-copying and computer printing service. He helped in creating fake Aadhaar cards with photos provided by Asif and supplied these to Mujahid.
• The accused persons exploited the vulnerabilities in the mobile service provider application as well as e-wallet application to activate SIM cards linked to e-wallet accounts.
• Based on the names found on e-wallet applications, Mujahid used to search a list of PANs and activate the e-wallet previously linked with the mobile number.
• The activated SIM cards and e-wallets were supplied to cyber criminals in Rajasthan, who used them to extort money from victims.
• Based on the information shared by the Cyber Crime Division, CID, Bengaluru, the MHA’s Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) has conducted a detailed data analysis and established the links of the arrested persons to 3,951 cases across India.
Appeal to public
• The public is advised to exercise caution while accepting any video call from unknown persons.
• Privacy controls provided by social media sites should be used to avoid unnecessary exposure of personal information online.
• In case money is demanded, a complaint can be made at the nearest police station.
