Hyderabad: Four persons from Bihar, who were duping customers of e-commerce websites offering gifts and cash as a bonus for purchasing goods, were arrested by the Cyberabad cyber crime police on Friday.
The police found that the accused persons had a database of over one lakh customers of various e-commerce sites and had earned about Rs 5 crore by cheating them.
The cyber crime police was probing a case in which a homemaker from Kompally was cheated of Rs 2.3 lakh, after being offered a car worth Rs 6.9 lakh. Police arrested Sandeep Kumar, 22, the alleged mastermind, of Kabirpura, his brother-in-law Manikchand Paswan, 30, of Mirbigha, Tausif Ahmed, 30, of Ghaziabad and Vikas Kumar, 30, of Delhi.
The gang used to purchase data of customers making purchases on e-commerce sites. The customers would get a message about a gift if they bought products through e-commerce sites. The complainant had purchased a potato cutter worth Rs 228 through Snapdeal.com. Two days later, the gang got in touch with her. They offered her the car and made her pay Rs 2.3 lakh under various pretexts. Cyberabad police commissioner V.C. Sajjanar said that the accused persons were collecting customer data illegally. They create fake identification cards in the name of the e-commerce sites, fake Aadhaar cards, and PAN cards, and send to the victim to make her believe that they are genuine.
The accused shared a toll-free number with the woman telling her she can call and enquire with the company if she had any doubts. The toll-free number was taken from a service provider in Delhi only to cheat the innocent, he added. “The gang also developed 13 spoofed websites similar to that of e-commerce companies like Snapdeal, Shopclues, Club factory, Flipkart, Amazon and telemarketing companies like Naaptol, Homeshop-18 to deceive innocent persons,” said the commissioner.
The commissioner said that the gang has collected the data of at least one lakh customers illegally and has collected over Rs 5 crore from the victims. “The accused shared the money among themselves. Sandeep Kumar bought two houses and a car with the money,” Mr Sajjanar said.
Two more accused persons Bipin Kumar and Sandeep Paswan are still at large. Further investigation is on to identify the victims and a meeting will be held with the representatives of the e-commerce sites to discuss plans to curb spoof websites and leaking of customer data.
The cyber crime team that apprehended the accused has recovered 12 phones, two laptops, one SUV, 19 SIM cards in fictitious names, two fake PAN cards, four fake Aadhaar cards, fake identification cards, voter ids, and debit cards.
