A Jamtara-based man was arrested for cheating a woman of ₹2 lakh on the pretext of asking for payment for a delivery parcel, police said on Thursday.
The accused was identified as Amrul Ansari, 24, they added.
In the woman’s complaint filed on March 19, she alleged that she had received a call from an unknown phone number asking her to pay ₹3 as her India Post parcel’s delivery was delayed. The caller thereafter sent her a link and application for customer support on WhatsApp, and asked her to make the payment via UPI through the application.
When she entered her payment details on the application, the payment failed, but later in the day, she received a call from her bank regarding two payments resulting in a total of ₹2 lakh being debited from her account.
During investigation, police scanned the bank accounts used in transferring the money, and after technical analysis, it was revealed that the number used to make the phone calls was active in Jharkhand’s Jamtara. An officer said the number was used on multiple devices. A further search revealed that as many as 14 SIM cards were active on a single device, which was traced to Mr. Ansari.
The accused was arrested after multiple raids were conducted in Karmatar in Jamtara, the officer said.
DCP (South West) Rohit Meena said the accused revealed to the police that he was actively involved in cyber crime and would target victims by sending them phishing links. He also regularly impersonated customer care representatives and persuaded victims to transfer money, he said.
“Since Jamtara is infamous for cyber crime, he is also well connected with other cyber criminals. He works with them and they arrange bank accounts for receiving cheated amount,” the DCP said.
