Showing posts with label Cyber crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cyber crime. Show all posts

Friday, January 28, 2022

Fraud portal of online shopping busted

 Fraud portal of online shopping busted


TIMES NEWS NETWORK


Vadodara: Two persons, who used the mobile phone number of an unsuspecting citizen to carry out fraud worth lakhs of rupees, have been arrested by the cybercrime sleuths in the city. The accused duo is suspected to have conned many people in the past, the police said.

According to the cybercrime sleuths, Dhaval Patel, a resident of Atladara, had filed a complaint against unidentified persons some months ago. Patel told the police that his wife Nidhi started getting innumerable calls on her number from many people across the country. The callers demanded the products they had bought from a website blazeshop. live.

“Investigations revealed that the accused had posted Nidhi’s mobile number on the website. The website accepted payments but didn’t deliver the products. The buyers used to call on Nidhi’s number for inquiry,” the police said. Patel as well as his wife were unaware that her number was being misused.

The cybercrime sleuths then contacted the customers who had bought products from the website through online payment. It led them to a bank account where the money transferred by customers was deposited. “The bank account was in the name of Gaurav Brahmbhatt, a resident of Anand, and the registered mobile number linked to the bank account was in the name of Nikunj Dave, a resident of Valsad,” the police added.

The bank account had Rs 5. 35 lakh in deposits. The cops tracked down the duo’s location and arrested them. Investigating officials said that the duo must have siphoned a big amount by defrauding dozens of persons by using the fake shopping website. “We are trying to ascertain if they have committed similar frauds in the past apart from recovering the money they siphoned from unsuspecting customers,” the police said.

Tuesday, January 4, 2022

Prime accused held in fraud case involving Rs 70 lakhs worth government funds of Vellore BDO


Prime accused held in fraud case involving Rs 70 lakhs worth government funds of Vellore BDO

The beneficiaries, who went by the name of Vijayan and Jayakumar, were found to be receiving Rs 50 lakhs and Rs 20 lakhs respectively to their current accounts.

Published: 03rd January 2022 12:19 PM |


Express News Service

VELLORE: After almost seven weeks of investigation, Vellore Cyber Crime police arrested the prime accused in a financial fraud case involving government funds. The accused allegedly siphoned off Rs 70 lakh from the Block Development Office (BDO) in Katpadi by illegally accessing its portal.

On November 15, a BDO staff noticed something 'fishy' where two transactions under the 'noon-meal' salary category were made to two beneficiaries, successfully clearing the verification process without officials' knowledge.

The incident was reported to the police the same day and on November 17, Katpadi BDO Raghu lodged a complaint with the Cyber Crime police unit.

A preliminary probe launched by investigation officer J Abarna and the team found that the transactions were made by some fraudsters.

The beneficiaries, who went by the name of Vijayan and Jayakumar, were found to be receiving Rs 50 lakhs and Rs 20 lakhs respectively to their current accounts.

"We checked with the banks and found that there was a name mismatch in both the accounts. Due to the mismatch, the amount processed to Jayakumar account was frozen. However, Vijayan received it and before the bank froze his account, he managed to withdraw Rs 35,000, " investigation officer, Abarna, told TNIE

Real names come to light

The cybercrime unit formed a 12-member team including computer experts. During the investigation, the real names of the account holders were identified as Prabu and Poovarasan.

A police officer, who was part of the investigation team, said Prabu was running an e-service centre opposite Tirupattur bus stand. "Firstly, we identified three people to be involved in the crime. Prabu and Jeeva, who works at Prabu's centre and Poovarasan who is Jeeva's friend. Till that point, we didn't know another man existed and that he would turn out to be the prime accused. He was the main reason behind the whole fraudulent transaction," Abarna said.

Before the crime, he introduced himself as government staff and first approached Jeeva who was at the centre at that time. He said he can get them government funds and to do that he needed some 30% commission. To prove his words, he accessed the government portals with a unique ID and password, the investigation officer said.

Jeeva took this to Prabu who agreed to it and so did his friend Poovarasan. Further probe revealed the identity of the fourth person as Sampath Kumar. Using Call Detail Record (CDR), CCTV footage, and other intelligence, we tracked him from Vellore to Tirupattur, Pochampalli, and Erode, Abarna said.

During the investigation, we found that Sampath Kumar was not his real name and that he used it to deliberately hide his identity. He was identified as Mohan (24), a computer operator and a temporary staff at the BDO, Mecheri in Salem district.

There, he learned the unique ID and password of government staff and used this ID to commit the financial fraud after the staff was transferred to Katpadi BDO, the investigation officer said. He was arrested on December 31.



Monday, January 3, 2022

Address update scam: Denim trousers cost ₹94k

 Address update scam: Denim trousers cost ₹94k


TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad:

03.01.2022

A pair of branded denim trousers cost a Vastrapur interior designer Rs 94,000, with cybercrooks siphoning off her money with a malicious link. She had clicked the link to get delivery updates, mentioned an FIR filed with the Vastrapur police station on Saturday.

The victim is Apurva Munet, 25, a resident of Samruddhi Apartments, who hails from Madhya Pradesh. She has been working as a senior interior designer with a private firm in Thaltej for the past two years.

She stated in her FIR that she had ordered one pair of denim trousers on November 28 and another on November 29 from a shopping portal of a leading denim company.

Munet said in her FIR that the pair she had ordered on November 28 was delivered on December 3. But there was no sign of the November 29 order. On December14, she searched for the customer care number of the delivery firm concerned. She called the number and a person asked her for the tracking ID and confirmed that her package was with the delivery firm.
She asked him if she could collect her package personally. But the man insisted that their courier would make the delivery.

The man told her to update her address by paying Rs 3 using a link sent to her. Following his instruction, she paid the money after which she received a confirmation message. Later, the man called and asked  for her preferred delivery time.

On December 14, at around 8. 30pm, she began receiving messages about money being deducted from her two bank accounts linked to a UPI payment app. In all, she ended up losing Rs 94,000. Having realized that she had been cheated, she approached Vastrapur police and filed a complaint. The Information Technology Act has been invoked as well.

Omicron test lure: Bank accounts emptied Cybercrooks Use Isolation Threat

 

Omicron test lure: Bank accounts emptied

Cybercrooks Use Isolation Threat

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad:

03.01.2022

If you respond to an email promising a free Omicron test, you may let cybercrooks infect your device and empty your bank
account.

A senior police officer said that cybercrooks send emails with attached malicious links and files. If people open such a link or a file, their system —cellphone or computer — is compromised and criminals gain access tovital information.

Recently, the cyber cellof the state police issued an advisory on cybercrooks using the Omicron test lure.

In some instances, when someone hoping to get a free test clicks a link, bank account information is sought innocuously. Those gullible enough to divulge private information find their accounts emptied, according to the advisory issued by the cyber cell on December 30.

In many cases, people ended up sharing their details with fraudsters and lost their money in this time of crisis, said a poli- ce officer. The officer said that a formal complaint is yet to be filed in relation to such cheating cases.
“In most cases, people receive an email which is ostensibly from the National Health Service (NHS) of the UK,” the officer said. “The message offers the Omicron test. ”

The email senders also instill fear by saying that if the test is not taken, the recipient will be placedin isolationto prevent the spread of the infection, said the officer. “So people are lured with a free test and threatened by the prospect of isolation,” said another senior police officer. “Some people fall into the trap and are cheated. ” Sources in the state police said that cybercrooks also trawl the browsing history of a target and reach out if information on the Omicron test has been looked up.

Moreover, cybercrooks use addresses that appearto be from private and government hospitals. Police advise people to scrutinize domain names to checkthe authenticity of websites and report any suspicious activity on the cybercrime portal.

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Senior citizen duped of ₹49k

Senior citizen duped of ₹49k

Ahmedabad:12.10.2021

A senior citizen was cheated out of more than Rs 49,000 after she tried to fill up an online form to change the address for medicines she had ordered.

Dr Kamexa Dwarikaprasad told Sardarnagar police that she had ordered some medicine and got a call from a courier company on September 16 that her medicine had arrived. They said the medicine would be delivered the next day.

She told police, “I searched for the courier firm’s contact on the internet and got two phone numbers. When I called one of the numbers, they asked me to fill up an online form for which i would have to pay a charge of Rs 5.” The cybercrooks asked the doctor to download an app, and then fill up the form.

They then stole Rs 49,486 from her bank account. TNN

NEWS TODAY 27.03.2024