Two held in Ahmedabad in nationwide fraud racket

AHMEDABAD: Sleuths of the cyber cell of city police on Wednesday detained two persons, Mohsinkhan Pathan and Sohailkhan Pathan, for allegedly using the ruse of updating the victim’s ‘know your customer’ (KYC) details to defraud people from Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra, MP, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Punjab and Delhi. They allegedly siphoned off crores in this fashion. “We have informed the concerned states of their arrests and are coordinating to find out how many victims they have cheated,” said a police official.
Deputy commissioner of police, cyber cell, Amit Vasava, said that they seized two mobile phones, three laptops, three sim-slot boxes, 39 sim cards, three dongles, vehicles including a car, documents of two shops and Rs 58,000 cash.“During their interrogation we learned that they cheated about 250 people in Gujarat to the tune of Rs 1 crore and we are in touch with police of other states to apprehend others involved in the scam,” added Vasava.
Local court has sent the accused to five-day police remand.
Assistant commissioner of police, cyber cell, Jeetendra Yadav, said that in November 2019, Akbar Gulliwala of Jamalapur lodged a complaint about a call from an unknown number asking him to update his KYC details. “The caller made him download an application and siphoned off Rs 98,000 from his bank account. Akbar died of Covid in May and his son Faisal pursued the complaint,” added Yadav.
“We found the money siphoned off from Gulliwala’s account was transferred to other bank accounts through IMPS. One such account belonged to Sohailkhan, a resident of Rakhial,” said PSI Sajan Muchal of cyber cell.
Through Sohailkhan police reached Mohsinkhan, also a resident of Rakhial. From them they learned that they were in touch with other criminals in Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal and got data on lakhs of customers using the ruse of selling ayurvedic medicine.
“After getting the data, Sohailkhan used to send messages to thousands of customers to update their KYC and charge Rs 6,000 per day to do so. Based on the messages, cyber crooks in Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar called up and cheated the customers. Eight bank accounts into which the stolen money was deposited were uncovered,” said Yadav.
DCP Vasava said the accused had a script to narrate for conning victims that their e-wallet KYC details need to be updated. They would say the e- wallet’s KYC has expired and they will have to update it. “They were already wanted by police of various states,” said Vasava.
Cyber cell officials said they also enticed victims using the lure of a free mobile phone. Officials said Sohailkhan had passed Class XII while Mohsin studied up to Class IX. They had been cheating people for about nine months.