Gang stole account information with help of bank officials, busted

LUCKNOW: In a major breakthrough, a gang of online fraudsters was busted by Auraiya police on Saturday. However, the gang mastermind, a Nigerian, continues to be on the run.
Asif Nabi, Mohammed Talib, Mohammed Zeeshan and Mohammed Navi, all residents of Badaun, were the four gang members arrested. In connivance with bank officials, they had also siphoned off Rs 50 lakh from the bank account of a school in Basti and Rs 85 lakh from a school in Badaun.
Police recovered nine mobile phones, 10 ATM cards, three PAN cards, driving licences, voter ID cards, Aadhaar cards, cheque books and Rs 53,170 cash from them.
Police began investigation after retired head constable Ranjit Singh complained about being duped of Rs 3.8 lakh through his account. The case was registered at Fafoond police station.
Police said the criminals used to collect personal bank details with help from bank officials and then used to dupe people of lakhs.
SP (Auraiya) Triveni Singh said the fraudsters used to pose as representatives of the bank or telecom service provider, claiming that a person’s SIM card will be blocked if KYC is not updated. They used to ask for text message sent to their mobile phone. This message would contain sensitive information.
Using this, the gang would access all personal bank information and later, using BHIM app, would access account details.
As a result, the gang would access all bank account details and email ids and mobile numbers used to receive passwords to make transactions.
Singh said SIM swap fraud is a type of identity theft that exploits the SIM system’s biggest vulnerability.