Cyber criminals make hay during lockdown, dupe people of Rs 5 cr

Giridih: Cyber criminals based in Jharkhandś Giridih made away with the hard-earned money of hundreds of people to the tune of over Rs 5 crore during the lockdown period.

The startling revelation was made by the 11 members of a cyber fraud gang arrested by police from Margodih under Gandey block of the district.

Police sources said the gang members duped unsuspecting account holders through hundreds of digital transaction. Cops had got a tip-off about a cyber fraud gang being active in the area.

Giridih SP Surendra Kumar Jha said cops had recovered 26 mobile phones along with 33 SIM cards, 19 ATM cards and seven bank passbooks. The racket is headed by one Govind Mandal, who managed to give cops a slip with one of his associates.

A team led by DSP (Cyber cell) Suman Samdarshi raided Jokatiyabad ground under Gandey PS area and nabbed the criminals.

Those arrested were identified as Subhash Mandal, Mantu Mandal, Mukesh Kumar Mandal, Pawan Mandal, Dinesh Mandal, Sandeep Kumar Mandal, Virendra Mandal, Ishwar Sao, Santosh Mandal and Chhotan Mandal. Some of them have connection with Karmatand in Jamtara, notorious for its cyber fraud rackets, sources said.

During interrogation, the racketeers told cops they used to cheat people by using fake customer care numbers of different banks and companies. Gullible customers call these numbers and are duped of their savings instantly, Jha said.

Jha said the frauds succeeded due to an increase in digital transactions during lockdown.