Two fraudsters who cheated people from 8 states held from Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad Crime Branch arrests Sohail Khan and Mohsin Khan, seize Rs 58 lakh cash, a Hyundai car and KTM motorcycle

Ahmedabad Cyber Crime has arrested two persons for cheating and defrauding hundreds of persons in eight states including 140 from Gujarat of lakhs of rupees in an online fraud.

The two used to send SMS to people telling them that their Paytm KYCs were about to be blocked and asked them to contact a helpline number they sent. When people called the helpline they were told to download a TeamViewer software. As soon as the software was downloaded, the fraudsters gained access to the victim’s phone. They then used to empty the Paytm and bank accounts.

The police have arrested the main accused Sohail Khan (23), resident of 517 Aman Tower, Lal Mill Crossroads, Rakhial, and Mohsin Khan (23), a class 9 pass out after they raided their office at Sumel-8 Complex, Ajit Mill crossroads.

DCP Amit Vasava said an application was received from a complainant whose father was cheated of Rs 98,000 in November 2019. The amount was transferred from the bank account to several other accounts. One of the accounts belonged to Mohsin Khan who worked for Sohail Khan. They also seized Rs 58 lakh cash, a Hyundai car, and a KTM motorcycle from Mohsin.



“When his place was raided we found an SMS gateway, that was used for sending multiple messages at one time. The SMS gateway can have 512 SIM cards at one time and can send thousands of messages at one time. We also seized three laptops and scrutiny of the data revealed that more than 25 lakh messages were sent to people,” Vasava said.

“Sohail used to work for different people and had sent fake SMSes to more than 300 people from Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand. Mohsin used to get money for sending such fake SMSes. He has purchased bulk data for sending SMSes online. He also used eight bank accounts and online wallets to get money from fraudsters,” Vasava said.

“While most of the data he purchased was from outside Gujarat, as many as 140 persons from the state have also been cheated. Gujarat alone accounts for Rs 93 lakh fraud,” he added.

The police has recovered two mobile phones, three laptops, three SMS gateways, 39 SIM cards, three dongles, a Hyundai Verna Car, a KTM bike. We have also seized documents of two shops at his office and Rs 58,20,000 cash.

Besides the Paytm KYCs, he was also involved in frauds of selling Vivo phones at cheap rates. Sohail Khan used to operate from rented offices since July 2019 and had purchased his own office. He had purchased online data of thousands of people from Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Punjab and Delhi.

Sohail Khan used a 4G SMS Gateway and used a website called Horizone to send the fraudulent messages.

Cyber Crime ACP Jitendra Yadav said, “The fraudsters in contact with Sohail Khan were 300 in number and were from Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal. Sohail Khan used to send SMSes to victims giving numbers of the fraudsters as helpline numbers.”

He provided information of persons he had sent messages to cyber fraudsters involved in cheating people on pretext of KYC update. Sohail Khan used to charge Rs 6,000 for one blast of messages to people and in this way used to earn lakhs in a day for several blasts.

Vasava told Mirror that Sohail Khan has worked in the telemarketing field and sold ayurvedic medicines to customers. “He had once got in touch with a fraudster and was aware of the kind of frauds committed online. The fraudster sensing that Sohail Khan can be a good conduit had recruited him and had explained the entire system. He later came in touch with several other persons involved in cheating. Sohail Khan is from an ordinary family with very limited financial resources but the fraud helped him get rich,” he said.