The central region cyber police officials have busted a cyber fraud gang and arrested five members including the mastermind, for allegedly fraudulently obtaining a database of 300 people across the country, including 80 from Maharashtra, and taking a loan from an online finance company in voucher form, police sources said.
The accused Parvez Shah, Firoze Shah, Faiz Shah, Amzad Abdul Khan and Salim Shaikh were arrested by senior police inspector Sanjay Govilkar-led team of 15 police personnel from Kurla area.
The accused person had cheated Early Salary Pvt Ltd, by fraudulently availing loan on bogus documents. The company had registered a first information report (FIR) in April after it discovered that 15 customers have availed loan (in E-voucher form) by downloading the company’s mobile app and by submitting forged and duplicate documents.
A probe has revealed that the accused would illegally buy database (like details of Aadhar card, Pan card, birth date, address, bank statement, other banking details, etc.) of people from rogue websites operators selling company database anonymously on the Internet.
After this, the accused would register on the company’s mobile app and avail loans (in E-voucher form) on accounts created on different people’s names using stolen documents and data. Then using the vouchers accused would purchase electronics items online and then sell them through Kurla-based electronics shop and make money. The gang caused a loss of ₹26.20 lakh to the complainant company.
“The people whose data is used by fraudsters would only get to know about the scam only when the company would contact them for recovery of the loan. The accused carried out cheating and forgery swiftly by misusing people’s documents,” said Dyanesh Chavan, additional commissioner of police, Central region.
“During the technical investigation, we zeroed in on the location of the suspects who were regularly changing their locations between Mumbai-Thane. On Friday night we raided the electronic shop in Kurla, Khairani Road area, from where the accused used to sell fraudulently obtained electronic items,” said Govilkar.
The police have recovered fraudulently purchased 33 airconditioners, four refrigerators, five washing machines, a television set, oven, and 60 duplicate Aadhar cards and 63 PAN cards, etc., Govilkar added
All five accused have been charged with cheating, forgery and have been sent to police custody by a local court till June 22, Chavan said.
More Stories
Big Student Loan Forgiveness Update As Education Department Clarifies Eligibility For One-Time Adjustment
Delinquent student loans can reduce Social Security by $2,500 a year
How Business Owners Can Compare Regular Loans And Lines Of Credit