Surat man posed as banker to con city youth, held

HYDERABAD: The Cyber Crime Cell of the Rachakonda police on Saturday arrested one Ankith Prajapathi (25) from Surat in Gujarat, for cheating people posing as a bank official. Police suspect he may have cheated city victims of close to 2 lakh.
One Vinod Raj of Karmanghat had filed a complaint on March 28 stating that he received a phone call from an unidentified phone number and the caller introduced himself as a bank manager.
"He then informed the victim that his ATM card was blocked as he did not update his details with the bank. Believing this call to be true, he gave his card details such as CVV Number, card number and OTP to the caller," Cyber Cell inspector Md Riyazuddin, said.
He soon received a message saying money had been deducted from his account, following which he filed a complaint with the police on March 29.
During investigation, police learnt that the call originated from Jamtara district of Jharkhand and the money stolen from the victim was transferred to e-wallets like Paytm and Olacabs.
A police team, led by K Saidulu, picked up Ankith from Surat. On interrogation, he confessed that he was in contact with one Rahul from Jamtara.
"Since Ankith was running a utility payment centre, much like the Meeseva services, he used to take online payments from his customers. Rahul told him about the scam and said that he would pay him 20% of the money looted from victims. Considering this, he began sending bill details of his customers to Rahul," he added.
They used to meet once in a month to exchange the booty.
The duo, police said, were involved in three-cases in the Rachakonda limits. The police said that they were on the hunt for Rahul.
He was booked under section 417 (punishment for cheating), 419 (impersonation) and 379 (theft) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Also, he was booked under relevant sections of the Information Technology Act (IT Act).