BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha crime branch has arrested a data management professional in Mumbai for allegedly cheating lakhs of people in different states on the pretext of updating their KYC details with banks. The accused has been identified by police as Sundaram Charan32, a resident of Andheri (East). The crime branch got vital clues about Charan from three of his gang members from Jharkhand, who were arrested in Bhubaneswar, on January 29. Charan, who has done a course on data management and was running an online marketing-cum-advertising agency in Mumbai, was supplying data, including phone numbers, names and other details of people to the gang.
The crime branch officials said Charan’s company (360 marketing private limited) was providing services like bulk SMSes, emails, WhatsApp messages, Facebook promotions, voice calls for advertising purpose, business and real estate promotions.
“His company had tied up with Just Dial, Indiamart, Sulekha and Tedindia on a yearly subscription. He was receiving details, including phone numbers of lakhs of people, by paying money to these data supplying companies. He was selling the data to different cyber criminal gangs and supporting their crimes,” ADG (crime branch) Sanjeeb Panda said.
Charan was charging only 10-15 paise for sharing the details of one person. “We were shocked to see his bank statements of the last six months. More than Rs 17 lakh was deposited in cash in his personal account in the last six months. He made money by selling the names and phone numbers of people of different states to different gangs of fraudsters,” Panda said.
As per their modus operandi, the three accused persons used to send bulk SMS to people, asking them to update their KYC to avoid suspension of their banking services. Those who responded to their messages and clicked on suspicious links, ended up losing money from their accounts. The accused, who were arrested from Bhubaneswar, had contacted more than 4.38 lakh people across the country using preactivated SIMs.
The crime branch officials said Charan’s company (360 marketing private limited) was providing services like bulk SMSes, emails, WhatsApp messages, Facebook promotions, voice calls for advertising purpose, business and real estate promotions.
“His company had tied up with Just Dial, Indiamart, Sulekha and Tedindia on a yearly subscription. He was receiving details, including phone numbers of lakhs of people, by paying money to these data supplying companies. He was selling the data to different cyber criminal gangs and supporting their crimes,” ADG (crime branch) Sanjeeb Panda said.
Charan was charging only 10-15 paise for sharing the details of one person. “We were shocked to see his bank statements of the last six months. More than Rs 17 lakh was deposited in cash in his personal account in the last six months. He made money by selling the names and phone numbers of people of different states to different gangs of fraudsters,” Panda said.
As per their modus operandi, the three accused persons used to send bulk SMS to people, asking them to update their KYC to avoid suspension of their banking services. Those who responded to their messages and clicked on suspicious links, ended up losing money from their accounts. The accused, who were arrested from Bhubaneswar, had contacted more than 4.38 lakh people across the country using preactivated SIMs.