Rs 200 cr fraud: Luck runs out for cyber crime gang leader

Noida: Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) team has arrested the gang leader of a cyber criminals' gang who used to dupe people after offering them fake lucky draws and other lucrative gifts. Cops said that the gang had accessed data and other details of various people from their agents working with online shopping websites and insurance companies.

Police have recovered a data containing details of around 14 lakhs people while they claimed that the gang had duped people with over Rs 200 crores.

According to a senior STF officer, the arrested accused has been identified as Nandan Rao Patel, native of Bhabua district in Bihar but lived at an apartment in Amrapali Sapphire society in sector 45 of Noida.

Vishal Vikram, Additional superintendent of Police (ASP), UP STF, said that the gang used to dupe innocent persons after obtaining their card details and looting money from their accounts.

"On sustained interrogations, Patel told police that he used to access data of customers with the help of agents working with online shopping portals and hackers to whom he used to pay Rs 2 or 3 per customer. The data thus accessed was sold out to his clients running fake call centers for across Delhi-NCR region," said Vikram.

The officer further said that scam callers call innocent persons, giving an impression that they are calling from online shopping insurance companies and seek the required information necessary to transfer their money.

"The gang used to lure people by offering them fake lucky draws and expensive gifts against the online shopping they have recently made. They further ask them to deposit a certain amount as registration fees in order to claim their gift. They further trick the target to believe in them and upon getting the card and count details of the target customer, the gang used to transfer money to payment merchants such as PayU, Paytm, Olacabs, Mobikwik, and a few bank accounts," added Vikram.

Cops said that the bank and other accounts with UPI mobile wallets were taken on rent while the details were mostly fake.

"We are investigating as how they were able to get these accounts of fake address proofs while the involvement of some bank officials will also be probed. The data contained in his laptop as well as his email has been analysed and found that he is in possession of data of almost 14 lakhs people while the fraud conducted was around Rs 200 crores," the officer said.

The accused also disclosed that he was running an online promotion digital marketing company named Anik World at Ansal Corporate Park in sector 142 of Noida.

Patel was arrested from sector 142 of Noida while he will be sent to jail after producing before the court. Police are now further investigating the case to reach out other gang members and fake call centers.