Cybercriminals warned of action under Khammam

Duped credit card-holders into revealing security details

The Khammam three-town police busted a five-member gang of online fraudsters accused of duping several credit card and debit card holders, conducting fraudulent transactions after tricking users into revealing security details of bank accounts.

A police team nabbed the five, all hailing from Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh, in the busy railway station area here late on Thursday evening.

The arrested persons were identified as M. Saleem Malik (24), D. Venugopal (23), N. Abdul (22), B. Ramanjaneyulu (20), and B. Manohar (20).

The police seized about ?1 lakh cash, ten mobile phones worth ?1.39 lakh and 15 SIM cards from them.

Producing the accused before the media on Friday, Khammam Police Commissioner Tafseer Iqbal said the gang was involved in eight separate cases of online fraud in the district.

How they cheated

Explaining the gang’s modus operandi, he said the fraudsters contacted credit card holders over phone by pretending to be bank representatives and tricked them into furnishing password, card verification value code and other vital details of credit cards.

They duped several users and transferred money from the victims’ credit card accounts into their mobile wallets.

The gang was also hoodwinked several persons, luring them with fictitious offers of lottery winnings.

The police helped revert ?1.07 lakh from the e-wallet accounts of the accused to the victims.