VADODARA: Cyber fraudsters have devised a new way of cheating people wherein they don’t contact the victims and manage to transfer the money without getting any details from them.
One such conman was arrested by the Cyber Crime police station on Friday from Jodhpur who, along with five others, had siphoned off Rs 14.7 lakh from the bank account of Jawaharlal Yadav, a businessman living in Gorwa.
The 20-year-old accused Lalitkumar Rathore had received Rs 1.5 lakh in his payments bank account from Yadav’s cash credit account . Five others accused too received the remaining amount in their payments bank accounts. Yadav, who is into the business of industrial construction, was never contacted by any of the accused nor did he share any one-time password with anyone, yet the money got debited. He only realized it when he checked the bank statement in December last year. Interestingly, the daily withdrawal limit in Yadav’s account was Rs 10 lakh, yet the entire amount of Rs 14.7 lakh was debited on the same day.
“We are investigating how the money got debited without the account holder’s consent. The bank has informed us that the internet protocol (IP) addresses that were involved in the transactions were of Switzerland and India,” said assistant commissioner of police Hardik Makadiya. Police suspect that fraudsters may have used a virtual private network (VPN).
During interrogation, Rathore told police that he does not know the other people who received money in their accounts. He claimed that he had received a message on Telegram messaging app regarding a job offer. Under the job conditions, he was supposed to receive money and share 50% of it with the job provider. However, after receiving Rs 1.5 lakh Rathore used all the money and disconnected from Telegram app.
“We suspect it is part of a larger conspiracy where the masterminds siphon off money and park it in the bank accounts of people like Rathore. However, in this case Rathore too is equally responsible as he received the money and used it,” Makadiya added. Rathore was arrested in the past too by Pratapnagar police station of Jodhpur in connection with a burglary.