Goa: Cyber crime cell busts online racket operating from Rajasthan, arrests 2

PANAJI: The cyber crime cell (CCC) of Goa police bust an online racket operating from Rajasthan and arrested two persons who allegedly cheated a woman from Mapusa of around Rs12 lakh on the pretext of updating her ATM cum debit card.
Crime branch superintendent of police (SP) Shobit Saxena said that the cyber crime police station arrested Lakhvinder Singh, 26 and Darshan Singh, 43, residents of Anupgarh, a town in Rajasthan bordering Pakistan in a case of online vishing - a practice where fraudulent phone calls are made to customers while posing as bank officials.
Saxena said that the CCC team has recovered bank ATM cards, bank pass books, SIM cards and mobile phones as well as other documents from the accused.
On June 18 the lady filed a complaint with the cyber crime station about receiving a call to update her bank debit card. Over the call, the accused got her to share her banking details including the ATM/ debit card details as well as her internet banking information. After securing all the details, Rs 12,76,610 was transferred from her bank account into other accounts.
The cyber crime team is investigating to trace and arrest other accused. The case is being supervised by SP cyber crime and PI cyber crime Rajesh Job, along with PSI cyber crime.
The cyber crime team issued an advisory to the public not to share any banking details over the phone, email or messages. Saxena advised that in such fraudulent cases, people should visit their nearest bank branch and also inform the cyber crime team. As a safety measure, the team advises verifying the bank’s customer care number through search engines like Google or to get the number directly from the bank’s website. There have been cases when fraudsters have posted their own numbers as that of the bank’s customer care number, and tricked callers to share their banking details through phishing (via emails), vishing (phone calls) or smishing (through SMS).