Hyderabad: A gang of fraudsters created fake identity proofs of a bank account holder, took over the contact details and tricked sales executives of the bank into issuing them a credit card in his name. They withdrew Rs 5 lakh without the account holder, Praveen Athili, a businessman from Sainik-puri, realising it.
The fraud came to light when the bank executives approached the account holder for payment of dues and realised that he had not withdrawn the money. The gang was arrested by the Rachakonda cyber crime police.
After detailed investigations, the team arrested Kommineni Balakrishna, 29, Vak-dani Mahesh, 27, and Polagani Naresh Ku-mar, 34. They had understood how the system operates while they were working with direct sales agencies which deal with the credit card issuing process.
Rachakonda cyber crimes inspector D. Ashish Reddy said, “They modified the ID proof by changing the picture with someone who looked similar. They changed the phone number and delivery address of the credit card.”
They took the help of Salluri Rajender, 45, who printed forged details on plastic cards which resembled PAN and Aadhaar cards. The gang managed the verification calls during pre-approval process, impersonating the victim and took delivery of cards from the courier.
They siphoned off Rs 5 lakh from the credit card. The investigators managed to recover Rs 2.3 lakh from the procession of the accused. They were booked under IPC Sections 417 (punishment for cheating) and 419 (cheating by impersonation) and Sections 66C & 66D the IT Act.
The Rachakonda cyber crime police advised citizens not to share their PAN card, Aadhaar card or any other proof of identity and address with unauthorised persons.
When they share such details, they should keep a record of the persons with whom they shared the details, the police said.
