The Crime Branch of Odisha Police Sunday arrested three cybercriminals for possessing a huge quantity of pre-activated SIM cards and allegedly involved in fraudulent financial activities by opening fake accounts and wallets in several online shopping and gaming apps, a senior officer said.
Additional Director General of Police, Crime Branch, Sanjeeb Panda said police seized 19,641 SIM cards, Rs 14 lakh cash, 48 mobile phones, fingerprinting scanner, credit cards, bank passbooks, a laptop, 440 passport size photographs, 394 voter ID cards, five Aadhaar cards, 11 QR code boards and 108 customer application forms from their possession.
The ADGP said one Dushmant Sahu of Dhenkanal district was the mastermind. Others arrested in this connection are Sai Prakash Das and Avinash Nayak of the same district, who were jointly running a shop dealing with pre-activated SIM cards and other accessories of cell phones.
All the three have been booked under several sections of the IPC and IT Act, Panda said. The ADGP said the cyber police was alerted when a WhatsApp group was opened by a particular mobile phone number with a display photograph of a very popular person of the state. On inquiry, it was found that the same number was being used by three different mobile phones in Talabarkot village of Dhenkanal district. The same activities were also going on in the area with SIM cards of other service providers.
With an extensive investigation, the cybercops stumbled upon Dushmant and the other two, who were in possession of huge quantities of pre-activated SIM cards, several mobile phones and other accessories like fingerprinting scanners, credit cards, Aadhaar cards, QR code boards, recharge vouchers, photographs, ATM cards, bank passbooks and plenty of cash.
Detailing the modus operandi, the ADGP said Dushmant had joined a group called ‘Buyer Seller of OTP’ through Facebook. With the help of pre-activated SIM cards, they used to open fake accounts of shopping Apps and other gaming apps. Then by sharing each OTP in the Buyer Seller group, they were receiving instant payments from buyers as well as from sellers.
-With PTI Input
