Ernakulam Rural Police has urged people to be more cautious of online frauds after officials busted kingpin of a racket that swindled Rs 1.5 crores from Kerala natives in the past two months. A Kolkata native was nabbed from Bengaluru on Tuesday, who is accused of being the head of the racket that stole money from bank accounts of four people hacking their online banking accounts.
46-year-old Manothosh Biswas was nabbed in the probe led by Ernakulam Rural police after a Muvattupuzha native complained that Rs 85 lakhs were lost from his bank account. The following probe revealed that the racket also stole Rs 83.75 lakh from three people in total in Thrissur district.
According to the police, bank accounts of all victims were hacked, following which the racketeers obtained duplicate sim cards of the people, allowing them to transact money from the bank accounts.
Explaining the modus operandi of the racket, police state the gang chooses people with online banking facilities. Initially they hack the online banking account, retrieving username and password.
“If successful, they then collect duplicate sim cards of the registered mobile number. Once they succeed to get a duplicate sim card, the original sim card which is actually with the victim, gets blocked. At once, they transact money from the account as the OTP (one-time password) is received in the duplicate sim,” Ernakulam Rural District Police Chief K Karthick, tells TNM.
Arrested accused Manothosh Biswas
According to police, the Muvattupuzha native’s duplicate sim was taken through BSNL office in Thiruvananthapuram, meanwhile duplicate sim cards of Thrissur natives were taken from the district itself. The money stolen has been traced to have transferred into four bank accounts based in Kolkata.
According to police, the racket has similarly swindled money from across India. “There are more people in the racket, and more people have lost money from the state also,” said the police officer.
Police state that the racketeers studied the bank accounts before choosing to attempt fraud. After a list of people whose online banking accounts have been hacked, the team observes the account. “They mostly chose accounts with frequent activity and large balance,” adds another police officer.
Police state that people can avoid falling prey to such instances if they are cautious. “The foremost thing to take care of is not to click on the links sent by unknown people, nor respond to them. Nor is it advisable to visit unfamiliar sites or download unfamiliar applications to mobile. It could be a malware and could be used to hack your details,” says K Karthick IPS.
Also do not respond to phone calls which asks you about details of bank accounts. No ethical institution asks such details over the phone, he adds. “If people come across such suspicious instances, they should at once report to police. We often take many safety mechanisms to protect our houses and our properties.But in the digital world we are, it is equally important to stay cautious about such online fraud too,” he adds.