NEW DELHI: With the arrest of two men, the police on Friday busted a gang who allegedly duped more than 1000 people through swapping SIM cards and then transferring money from the victim’s account. Police said the accused used to persuade their targets to share confidential details on the pretext of linking their Aadhaar cards with their mobile numbers.
The accused have been identified as Alimuddin Ansari (27), a resident of Jamtara in Jharkhand, and Manoj Yadav (31), a resident of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh (UP). Police said that Ansari was arrested from Ajmer while his associate Yadav was arrested from Karol Bagh area.
According to Anto Alphonse, (DCP), Dwarka, through SIM swapping, Ansari and his associates got the SIM cards of victims and then transferred money from the victims’ bank accounts to the bank accounts provided by Manoj Yadav.
“Yadav was paid Rs 12,000 per account. Ansari, the mastermind of the syndicate allegedly operates his illegal business through multiple unorganised call centres in Jharkhand’s Jamtara, Giridih, Deoghar, Dhanbad and West Bengal’s Bardhman area,” said the DCP, adding that the matter came to light after police received a complaint from one Dr. Rakesh Gilani, a resident of Dwarka who was duped by them.
“Ansari and his associates called up people posing as customercare executive of telecom service provider or bank employee, and on the pretext of linking their Aadhar number with their mobile number or bank account, ask for card details of the bank accounts linked with that number. After getting all the details, they send a message and asked them to forward the message to the customercare number,” said the DCP.
“Once the target is convinced to send the SMS, that carried the 20 digit number of the new SIM card (which is already in possession of the accused), the original SIM card with the victim is deactivated forever,” said the DCP.
