E-Paper
Gang that cloned govt apps to commit fraud busted; 15 held
Azamgarh police arrested 15 cyber fraudsters who cloned apps to cheat users. They hacked phones to steal money, recovering multiple devices and bank info.
Azamgarh police have arrested fifteen members of an organised gang of cyber fraudsters who cloned government-owned and other mobile applications to cheat beneficiaries financially, they said.
Acting on a tip-off that two members of a gang in Lucknow were planning to commit a major cyber fraud, a police team led by Azamgarh cybercrime police station in-charge inspector Devendra Pratap Singh conducted a raid near Husadiya Chowk in the state capital and arrested Imran alias Samad and Arjun Singh on December 7. Based on their information, raids were conducted at two hotels, and 13 others were also arrested from Lucknow.
Azamgarh senior superintendent of police Anil Kumar said the 15 men hail from UP, Bihar, Delhi, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand and have confessed to being part of an organised gang. He added that actions under the UP Gangsters Act would be taken against all 15.
Kumar said that the gang created an Instagram account (Accountwala 9334), which they used to lure people with the promise of high commissions for providing bank accounts, debit card details and SIM card numbers.
Kumar said the gang’s technical persons prepared APK or Android Package Kit files that looked like apps of PM Kisan Yojana, E-Chalan and others, and sent them to their targets over WhatsApp. The software was used to hack into people’s phones and withdraw money from their bank accounts.
The gang received its commission by withdrawing and transferring the fraudulently obtained money from corporate/current accounts through these fake accounts, said the SSP.
Police said that 23 mobile phones, 14 debit cards, 15 SIM cards, several electronic devices, and two cars were recovered from their possession.
Preliminary investigation of the seized mobile phones revealed information related to 121 bank accounts, with complaints registered against a total of 31 bank accounts, said the SSP.
