Truck driver becomes cyber fraud, dupes several government employees across country

Monday, 16 October 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN

The Uttarakhand Special Task Force (STF) arrested a cyber fraudster for duping a retired health officer of Rs 10.5 lakh. The accused also worked as a truck driver in Uttar Pradesh and has reportedly committed cyber fraud and scammed several victims across the country, said the deputy superintendent of police of cyber crime police station Ankush Mishra. He said that the cyber crime police station at Haldwani in Nainital district received a case in October last year in which a cyber fraudster posing as a treasury officer duped a retired health officer. He reportedly sent a link on the victim’s mobile phone under the pretext of sending him information regarding his retirement funds and other details.

The complainant said that an amount of Rs 10.5 lakh was withdrawn from his account after he clicked on the link. Mishra said that cyber crime police station has already arrested an accused named Abishek Shah, a resident of Kolkata, in the case and sent him to jail after collecting technical and digital evidence against him. The cyber crime police were searching for another absconding accused named Vishal Singh (35) in the case.

Mishra said that the STF raided several locations in various states since last year but Singh consistently changed his locations and never stayed at the same place for long to avoid his arrest. However he was finally nabbed late on Saturday from Uttar Pradesh’s Etawah, said the DSP. He said that the accused stated during interrogation that he along with his accomplice Abhishek used to pose as treasury officers and dupe retired government employees by sending them links in the name of transferring their funds, gratuity and other amounts to their bank accounts. They used to transfer money from the victims’ accounts to their various bank accounts.

He said that they used to commit these frauds using fake SIM cards, social media profiles and fake accounts among others, informed Mishra. He said that it is a strong possibility that these accused duped several people in other states as well and authorities here will contact the police of other states to gather more information about it. The senior superintendent of police of STF Ayush Agrawal also appealed to citizens to not be tempted by any unknown call and to refrain from giving any kind of information without checking the authenticity of the unknown caller.