HYDERABAD: Though Ebigbo Innocent, the most-wanted cyber criminal based in Nigeria and mastermind behind the SIM swap fraud cases, is still absconding, cops believe that they have neutralised his network in India with the recent arrest of Mumbai’s Mira Road gang. Apart from Mumbai and Kerala police, even Hyderabad city police want to interrogate the arrested gang members in relation to the cases registered in their respective jurisdictions.
According to police, Innocent alias James is solely responsible for executing SIM card swap frauds across the country targeting businessmen operating overdraft current bank accounts of the victims.
Cyberabad police came across the name of James after arresting six persons, including a Nigerian, Odafe Henry, and his five associates from Kolkata in January 2019. The name of James cropped up again during the recent arrest of five members of Mira Road-based SIM swap fraudsters’ gang.
“During the interrogation, the accused from Kolkata gang and Mumbai gang clearly mentioned that they were working with James. Though we are not certain if any of the names used by him are real, he communicates with the Indian gang members with that name,” Cyberabad cyber crime inspector K Srinivas said.
With the arrest of Kolkata and Mumbai-based associates of James, police believe that they have busted the SIM swap fraud network of James in India. So far, six SIM swap fraud cases are registered in Cyberabad where James sends phishing mails to victims making it look like IT department mail and collects internet banking details, ID card copies and other details, including the mobile numbers of the victims. Indian gang members obtain duplicate SIM cards by forging ID of the victims and siphon off the money from the bank account when the victim’s SIM becomes inactive.
Hyderabad police have two SIM swap cases registered with them where the victims who are steel and construction businessmen lost Rs 35 lakh and Rs 50 lakh, respectively, to the fraudsters. Hyderabad police arrested four members of the Kolkata-based gang in October 2020 in relation to these cases but the arrested accused informed that they work along with a Nigerian, Shedrick Paul. “It is possible that Shedrick and James are the same person. We also suspect that he could be involved in other types of cyber crimes,” said a cyber crime official.
Apart from Hyderabad police, police from Mumbai and Kerala are also keen on interrogating the five accused arrested from Mira Road by Cyberabad police as 40 forged Aadhaar cards were found in their possession, indicating that the accused have duped several others.