New Delhi, Sept. 24 -- Four people have been arrested for allegedly posing as bank customer-care executives and duping a credit card holder of Rs 1.19 lakh on the pretext of cancelling a fictitious annual maintenance charge and issuing a new card, police said on Thursday.
The accused allegedly used virtual phone numbers resembling bank customer-care numbers and a third-party payment application to route the fraudulent transactions.
The victim received a call on July 16 from a person posing as a bank official, who claimed that an annual maintenance charge of Rs 2,499 had been levied on his card. He was subsequently contacted from a number beginning with +1850 and allegedly induced to download a payment application and make three transactions totalling Rs 1,19,837.
After the promised card failed to arrive, the victim contacted genuine bank customer care, learnt that no such request existed, blocked his card and approached police.
An e-FIR was registered and investigators analysed call records, mobile numbers, account details, UPI transactions and beneficiary accounts. The financial trail led them to Prince Kumar (20), who was arrested from Aligarh on September 15. Police said his account showed suspicious transactions of over Rs 12 lakh within five to seven days.
Vishal Tomar (21), Vishal Raghav (27) and Sanjay Verma (40) were subsequently arrested from Aligarh and Delhi. Police said Verma had worked at a Noida call centre and allegedly used his experience to operate the fraud network.
Eight mobile phones were recovered, with one device linked to 32 other complaints.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.