Punjab Police has exposed a major cyber fraud gang involved in deceiving people with the promise of jobs. Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav stated that the Punjab Police, in collaboration with cybercrime units from various districts of Assam, has arrested four cyber criminals and dismantled an online job fraud racket.
DGP Yadav mentioned in his statement that the accused, part of the forgery gang, trapped individuals using the Telegram app, enticing them with work-from-home schemes.
To gain victims' trust initially, they assigned small tasks and even sent some money as payment. Later, by luring the victims with the promise of high returns, the criminals persuaded them to deposit money under various pretexts.
DGP Yadav said, "The victims were asked to deposit money by offering them lucrative returns through different pretexts." He further added that the Punjab Police, along with these arrests, has uncovered another clue, leading to the identification of a widespread cyber fraud network across the country.
The police recovered from the fraudsters two swipe machines, two biometric scanners, one iris scanner, one fingerprint scanner, 38 PAN cards, 32 debit and credit cards, 16 SIM cards, 10 voter cards, nine Aadhar cards, and 10 bank account passbooks/chequebooks.
Additionally, five government seals, five mobile phones, one laptop, two pen drives, and one ID card were also seized from them.
ADGP (Cybercrime) V Neerja stated that a woman was defrauded of 25 lakh rupees by scammers. After the woman filed a complaint, the Cybercrime Unit conducted an investigation and found that the gang was operating from Assam.
The accused, identified as Jahirul Islam and Rafiual Islam, were arrested from the Nagaon district of Assam. They disclosed that they operated a Customer Services Point (CSP) to offer online services. In a bid to swiftly earn money, they exploited the personal documents of the public to create counterfeit PAN cards, voter cards, and Aadhaar cards. They employed Adobe Photoshop software for this purpose.
Subsequently, they utilized these forged documents to open bank accounts and acquire SIM cards, following the instructions of another suspect, Mehabub Alam.
The ADGP further mentioned that Mehabub Alam was apprehended in the Guwahati district. During interrogation, he disclosed that he had connected with Azizur Rehman.
Azizur Rehman had tasked him with supplying bank accounts on a commission basis. Police units also captured Azizur Rehman in the Morigaon district of Assam.
The investigation has revealed that the gang has defrauded 160 people across 23 states so far. Police have stated that there is a possibility of more victims coming forward.
According to the police, preliminary investigations have uncovered that the kingpins operating this fraud racket from abroad were receiving payments in cryptocurrency.
