Gurugram, Oct 20 Gurugram police have arrested two associates of a cyber-fraud gang for providing SIM cards to the group, which allegedly duped people via APK files by threatening to terminate their gas connection, officials said on Tuesday.
According to the police, on October 12, a person lodged a complaint saying that on October 9, they received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number saying that their HCG bill was pending and that the gas connection would be revoked if the bill was not paid within the stipulated time.
Thereafter, they were asked to contact other mobile numbers. Upon contacting the numbers provided, they received an APK link named “HCG BILL UPDATE.apk” via WhatsApp.
After clicking the link, a payment portal resembling Razorpay opened, where they were asked to pay Rs 12. While using a credit card to make the payment, suspicious transactions took place involving their bank account, resulting in a cyber-fraud of Rs 1,64,900, the complainant said.
Based on the complaint, a case was registered, they added.
During the investigation, police arrested two accused — Nirmal Kumar alias Vijay Kumar and Gopi Kumar Yadav, in Bihar’s Banka district on October 16 — and recovered two mobile phones with SIM cards used in the crime.
After obtaining transit remand, the police produced them before a Gurugram court on October 18 and took them on one-day police custody remand, they said.
“During police interrogation, it was revealed that the SIM cards used in the crime in the case had been provided by Nirmal, who had fraudulently obtained these SIM cards in the name of another person and provided them to accused Gopi Kumar Yadav for Rs 1,000,” the Gurugram police spokesperson said.
Yadav subsequently sold the SIM cards to another person for Rs 1,500. The accused had previously sold SIM cards that were used in similar fraudulent activities, the spokesperson said.
(PTI News)
