Jamtara fraudsters had bills to legitimise stolen money

New Delhi: Cyber criminals working in Jamtara district of Jharkhand have adopted a unique modus operandi to convert money stolen from unsuspecting bank account holders into white money, Shahdara district police has revealed.

The gang, busted by Delhi Police, was based in Jamtara and running a pan-India racket of online fraud, wherein the accused would pretend to be banking executives, call unsuspecting bank account holders and befool them into revealing banking details.

Four men, including the kingpin, had been arrested last month from Jharkhand by a team of Delhi Police Cyber Cell, which included sub-inspectors Rohtash and Devendra Chahar.

Elaborating on the modus operandi used by the accused to convert the money stolen through internet banking into white currency notes, cops said that the accused would transfer the money into various e-wallets.

Using these e-wallets, the accused would buy various articles from e-commerce websites, as a result of which they would get genuine receipt for having bought the article and avoid suspicion.

After receiving the article, the accused would sell it off to other people at a lower price, but for cash.

Among the articles purchased by the accused included smartphones, mobile phones and televisions, using the illegal money which was rerouted through different e-wallets.

Police claimed they have found that the accused had sold these electronic items in some shops which are been probed.

Investigators in the Cyber Cell of Shahdara district police are handling the case.

Police sources told Millennium Post that the investigation is going on in 30 to 40 such transactions, wherein electronic items and other goods were purchased through online shopping websites.

"The purpose of buying things was to get the bill during every purchase and later the item was sold to another person at a lower rate. The accused used to give the bill to the other buyer to give them the confidence that the item is genuine," said the sources.

After getting hard cash, the money would sent to the kingpin by the associate who would get their due commission.

Police claimed that the purchasing on different websites took place from different parts of the country, including the national Capital.

"If they were duping people of Delhi, they made sure that the transaction should happen from other states, so that they can dodge police," said a senior investigator.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) Nupur Prasad said that the accused used to receive every order on the street from various hawkers, so that no one can know the address of the accused.

Police claimed that the accused had trained several persons in Jamtara village regarding how to cheat unsuspecting account holders, as well as what to do and say if they are caught by police.

"The accused are answering in one word or only the things that are been asked," said the investigator.

"To connect some cases, we contacted the e-wallet companies. But they want the exact date, time of the transaction through the account, as the reversal process is quite time tasking," said the officer.