4 arrested for cheating on phone across India

(PTI) New Delhi, Dt

Security agencies have nabbed a gang with a "phone fraud" network across the country and arrested eight people and seized more than 200 new mobile phones with stolen funds, an official said on Tuesday. In addition, more than 200 mobile phones, 1,000 bank accounts and hundreds of Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and e-commerce IDs are being investigated. Security agencies have frozen about 100 bank accounts and debit and credit cards, officials said.

"Four masterminds of the Fraud to Phone (FTP) gang were arrested from Jharkhand, two each from Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh and more than 200 new mobile phones were seized," a Home Ministry official said. The operation against the gang was spread across 18 states and involved more than 50 people. The operation was carried out by the Home Ministry's cyber wing FCORD, Madhya Pradesh police and police from several other states.

An official said that on June 11, a 6-year-old Udaipur resident paid Rs. A case of cyber fraud of Rs 2.5 lakh was registered. The Fraud to Phone caller was operating from Jharkhand. During the investigation, the agency came to know that the fraudulent money was deposited directly in three SBI cards. Through these cards, a Chinese-made Xiaomi Poko M3 mobile phone was purchased from Flipkart. The funds were soon transferred to Balaghat in Madhya Pradesh. This was reported to the Superintendent of Police, Balaghat.

Jharkhand police have also arrested an FTP caller. Hundreds of FTP operatives are involved in OTP fraud, credit card fraud, e-commerce fraud, fake IDs, fake mobile numbers, false addresses, black marketing, tax evasion, money laundering and dealing in stolen goods. The accused were mostly using Chinese-made Xiaomi phones. He was also asked the reason.

CyberSafe is an application developed by FCORD and has been operating since August 2012. The application is connected to more than 3,000 organizations, including police stations and online and real-time 14 fintech units in 17 states. The app has so far received more than 3,000 phone fraud complaints and identified 4,000 phone numbers of fraudsters, as well as several thousand bank accounts, a Home Ministry official said.