Telecaller scam busted, nine held by cyber sleuths in Telangana

HYDERABAD: Rachakonda Cyber crime sleuths on Wednesday took into custody nine persons and also sent a notice under Section 91 of the CrPC to JustDial for sharing details of its callers to a teleshopping company Naaptol.

Revealing details of the case, Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat said that Keloth Kishan, a resident of Ibrahimpatnam recently ordered a mini-sewing machine and later received a post in the name of Naaptol Online Shopping with a scratch card. As per the card, he won an SUV worth Rs 8 lakh. Elated, Kishan called the customer care number on the card and confirmed the prize.

He was then told to pay various amounts in the name of service charges and ended up paying Rs 48,200 at separate intervals. Kishan finally realised that he was the victim of a cyber crime and lodged a complaint. The accused were identified as Uttam Kumar, Ramesh, Shankar, Savudya Raju, Ramchander, Mukesh Kumar, Jagan Mohan Rao, Chandu and Srisailam.

Bhagwat said that Uttam Kumar, originally from Bihar who is Accused No. 1, has been operating a fake call centre since 2017 and was adept at duping gullible people. “He, along with Mudavath Ramesh from Mahabubnagar, specifically hired local people to ensure that his prey were entrapped easily. These telecallers earn close to Rs 50,000 per week and were aware of the fraud they were committing. Uttam Kumar’s other frauds are pitching in the ideas of personal loans at lower interests, jobs, credit cards, KYC update and Work From Home jobs,” Bhagwat said. Asking people to be careful and not fall into such traps, Bhagwat advised mobile users not to share OTPs and also ignore the links promising anything for free.

“The links that appear at the top of Google search are often manipulated by hackers. It is always better to contact companies with the numbers provided on their website. Passwords should also be changed once every three months,” Bhagwat said.