Dumka: Deoghar police arrested 10 people in an alleged cyber fraud case during a raid in the Patharddah OP area on Aug 20 and seized 22 mobile phones and 19 SIM cards, officials said on Friday.Acting on the orders of Deoghar SP Praveen Pushkar following a tip-off about suspected cybercriminals, a team led by deputy SP Kailash Prasad Mahto conducted the raid and arrested the suspects.Police said a technical analysis of the seized mobile phones, SIM cards and IMEI numbers revealed links to cyber fraud complaints registered in several states.According to police, the accused allegedly posed as customer-care executives of Google Pay, PhonePe and Paytm and impersonated Airtel Payments Bank officials. They contacted customers on the pretext of resolving account- or card-related issues, including blocking or reactivating cards, and allegedly attempted to defraud them. They also used fake customer-care profiles on Google to lure victims.The accused allegedly sent APK files disguised as documents related to PM-Kisan schemes, electricity bills and RTO challans to gain access to victims’ mobile phones and carry out fraudulent transactions.The arrested suspects were identified as Lobin Das, Babul Kumar Das, Jhulan Das, Ajay Kumar Das, Rahul, Safaulla Ansari, Ajit Das, Ramesh Kumar Das, Ashish Das and Sindhu Kumar Das.Police said Ajay Kumar Das and Ramesh Kumar Das had earlier been accused in Deoghar Cyber police station case numbers 103/21 and 67/21, respectively.“Technical examination of the seized devices and SIM cards has indicated their links with cyber fraud complaints registered in different states. Further investigation is underway to identify their wider network and ascertain the extent of the fraud,” Mahto said.
