The caller would then ask the bank or income tax related details that they were needed to verify if the courier did not belong to the person they were talking to. (Representative image)
Mastermind Shrinivas Rao Dadi (49), who has strong technical knowledge despite limited training, was taken into custody.
Mumbai police exposed a network of cybercriminals who were stealing money from people across the country by posing as police officers and arrested its ringleader, who studied up to class 12 and had l accustomed to transacting more than Rs 5 crore a day in his accounts, an official said on Wednesday.
Mastermind Shrinivas Rao Dadi (49), who has strong technical knowledge despite limited education, was arrested by a team from Bangur Nagar police station from a luxury hotel in Hyderabad, the official said.
Besides Grandma, police also arrested four other members of her gang, including two from neighboring Thane and as many from Kolkata, he said.
Grandma claimed to run a real estate business and only communicated through the Telegram app. Police have so far frozen 40 bank accounts used by Dadi and recovered Rs 1.5 crore from him, the official said.
Explaining the modus operandi of cyber crooks, the official said Grandma and her accomplices would call people, mostly women, posing as police officers and tell them that cops found drugs or weapons in a mail sent by them, he said.
The caller would then ask the bank or income tax related details that they were needed to verify if the courier did not belong to the person they were talking to.
Ajay Kumar Bansal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Area -11), said most people would be scared off by the phone call and would share their bank or computer details. Victims also shared the one-time password (OTP) and in some cases allowed fraudsters to take control of their cellphones by downloading apps like AnyDesk, the official said.
After accessing key details, the scammers would steal money from the victim’s bank account. The cybergang targeted thousands of people across the country using this method, he said.
All the money stolen by the gang would go to bank accounts managed by Grandma. The accounts had transactions of Rs 5 crore to Rs 10 crore per day, the official said. Dadi would then convert the money into cryptocurrency and transfer it to a Chinese national, the official said.
To investigate the case, city police teams are in Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Jharkhand, Haryana and other places in Maharashtra and further arrests are expected, he said.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)
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