The town police have busted a gang of tech savvy cyber frauds who used to dupe folks of their cash by simply sending them APK information on their cellphones. Apparently, the fraudsters haven’t even handed Class 10.
Three accused arrested by Lucknow police from Jharkhand’s Deoghar (Sourced)
An APK (Android Package deal Equipment) file is a file format that comprises all the info required to run an app on an Android gadget. It’s just like an executable file (.exe) on Home windows.
“A joint team of cyber crime cell of the Police Commissionerate Lucknow and Thana Wazirganj Police busted the gang and arrested three criminals from Margomunda area of Deoghar district of Jharkhand,” mentioned inspector Sanjeev Kumar, Wazirganj Police Station.
“The accused have been identified as Riyaz Alam, 24, Ulfat Ansari, 32, and Niyaz Ansari, 19, all of them are 10th fail and are the residents of Jogidih village in Deoghar district from Jharkhand,” mentioned the police.
“Despite being less educated, the three accused were experts in cyber crime and were misusing technical knowledge,” added the police.
“These thugs used to hack people’s mobile phones by sending fake APK files, links through WhatsApp and then withdraw lakhs of rupees from their bank accounts. Eleven smartphones, including an iPhone 15 Pro, and multiple android phones, several SIM cards, e-sim and a white Creta car have been recovered from the arrested criminals,” mentioned Prashant Verma, in-charge cyber crime cell, Hazratganj.
Police investigations revealed that complaints have been filed in opposition to them in lots of states together with Jharkhand, and additional motion is being taken by contacting the police of different states.
Modus operandi
The gang members used to work in a really deliberate method as they used to ship an APK file on WhatsApp within the identify of presidency schemes like Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, PM Kusum Yojana. When an individual downloaded the file, his telephone would get fully hacked. “After the phone was hacked, all messages coming from the victim’s mobile were forwarded to the fraudsters’ mobile number. Through this, they gained access to the victim’s bank account’s UPI ID, net banking details and OTP. After this, the criminals would download the Aadhaar card of the victim from the m-Aadhaar app and other online platforms,” mentioned the Lucknow Police press notice.
“Some banks allow UPI and net banking login through Aadhaar number. Taking advantage of this facility, the fraudsters would enter the victim’s bank account and transfer money from there to their fake accounts. After the fraud, the criminals would immediately withdraw money from a nearby ATM and divide the amount among themselves so that it would be difficult to reach them,” police additional added.