CEN police arrest 8 cyber fraudsters, freeze Rs 19 lakh in 148 bank accounts

BENGALURU: The North division CEN police have arrested eight cyber fraudsters, who had cheated posing as Mumbai crime police and seized Rs 13 lakh, 11 mobile phones, bank passbooks and ATM cards from them. They had opened 148 accounts in different banks and swindled Rs 19 lakh from people.

About 75 fraud cases registered against them were found on the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) portal. The arrested are Wasim N, Habibullah, Nizamuddin, Mushraff Khan, B Nurullah Khan, Mohammad Umar, Syed Ahamed and Syed Hussain.

According to the police sources, the accused would cheat people by posing as Mumbai crime branch personnel using the name of FedEx company. They would threaten people saying that they had received illegal things through FedEx courier. Sometimes, they would tell their victims that they have information about money laundering through the latter’s accounts, and that RBI was likely to freeze their accounts. They would tell the victims that their bank transactions need to be investigated and threatened them that their money will be refunded only after investigation.

The accused had extorted Rs 66 lakh from HDFC Banks account and Rs 42 lakh from the Small Finance Bank. The withdrawal was made by RBL Bank, Davangere branch. The police have recovered CCTV footage and and investigating further.