BHUBANESWAR: The Crime Branch (CB) of Odisha Police arrested three members of a gang of cyber criminals who had contacted 4.38 lakh people from their operating centre in Bhubaneswar, a rented building, in past around a month to defraud them by obtaining their bank details on the pretext of updating their KYC (Know Your Customer) details.
The CB has ascertained at least 171 complaints were filed against the gang, natives of Jharkhand, across 20 states. The CB is yet to ascertain the amount of money swindled by the gang. But it would run into crores, police sources said.
Additional director general of police (ADG) (CB) Sanjeeb Panda said the gang sent bulk messages and made phone calls to people identifying themselves as bank officials. The gang would tell their targets that the latter need to update their KYC in the links given, else the banking services would discontinue. Once people would respond and fill in details in links given by them, they would get all the banking details. They would call them to get one time passwords (OTPs) from the unsuspecting customers and transfer money from their accounts to digital payment platforms such as google pay, Phone Pay and Paytm.
Panda said the gang used at least 33 different mobile numbers. They have purchased a list of phone numbers from dubious sources and frequently changed mobile phones and numbers using pre-activated SIMs to escape police scrutiny.
Police said the gang invited police attention for their unusual lavish lifestyle at a building in Rasulgarh area of the city: The men in their 20s used costly mobile phones and other electronic gadgets, roam around in big rented cars and order food lavishly after they took the house on rent on December 28.
The three arrested have been identified as Pradhum Mandal (20), Krishna Mandal (19), both natives of Girdih district, and Chetlal Mandal from Dhanbad district. Police have continued manhunt to nab more members of the same gang. The three are part of a larger group which keep moving fast from one part of the country to another to escape police eyes in their cybercrimes, ADG (Crime Branch) Panda said.
Police have seized around dozen mobile sets, two laptops, a tablet besides a few debit cards from them.
Panda said it is important for people to be aware that banking and insurance messages don’t come from any phone number. The sender would invariably be be some alphabets since they come from coded platforms. People must not respond banking related queries from phone numbers to escape from falling victim to cybercrimes, he said.
The CB has ascertained at least 171 complaints were filed against the gang, natives of Jharkhand, across 20 states. The CB is yet to ascertain the amount of money swindled by the gang. But it would run into crores, police sources said.
Additional director general of police (ADG) (CB) Sanjeeb Panda said the gang sent bulk messages and made phone calls to people identifying themselves as bank officials. The gang would tell their targets that the latter need to update their KYC in the links given, else the banking services would discontinue. Once people would respond and fill in details in links given by them, they would get all the banking details. They would call them to get one time passwords (OTPs) from the unsuspecting customers and transfer money from their accounts to digital payment platforms such as google pay, Phone Pay and Paytm.
Panda said the gang used at least 33 different mobile numbers. They have purchased a list of phone numbers from dubious sources and frequently changed mobile phones and numbers using pre-activated SIMs to escape police scrutiny.
Police said the gang invited police attention for their unusual lavish lifestyle at a building in Rasulgarh area of the city: The men in their 20s used costly mobile phones and other electronic gadgets, roam around in big rented cars and order food lavishly after they took the house on rent on December 28.
The three arrested have been identified as Pradhum Mandal (20), Krishna Mandal (19), both natives of Girdih district, and Chetlal Mandal from Dhanbad district. Police have continued manhunt to nab more members of the same gang. The three are part of a larger group which keep moving fast from one part of the country to another to escape police eyes in their cybercrimes, ADG (Crime Branch) Panda said.
Police have seized around dozen mobile sets, two laptops, a tablet besides a few debit cards from them.
Panda said it is important for people to be aware that banking and insurance messages don’t come from any phone number. The sender would invariably be be some alphabets since they come from coded platforms. People must not respond banking related queries from phone numbers to escape from falling victim to cybercrimes, he said.
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