8 nabbed from Jharkhand for 'Pan card update' scam in Mumbai

MUMBAI: The Cyber Crime police of Mumbai Crime Branch claimed to have solved 24 out of 81 cases of fraud involving 'PAN card update' by arresting eight Jharkhand natives who are part of the 'Mandal gang'. In 16 days - February 21 to March 8 - they siphoned off Rs 99.12 lakh from bank customers, including actors Malavika aka Shweta Menon and actor-politician Nagma.
They used to send messages saying: 'Dear Customer Your Bank Account has been Suspended... please update your PAN CARD Immediately' followed by a weblink. The customer data of a private bank was purchased and used to send the messages. The call centre operated from Mira Bhayander over the past few months.
The arrest of the eight, including mastermind Kishore Kumar Mandal (28), helped the cyber police solve at least 24 cases and seize Rs 10 lakh from their accounts.
"After the call centre bust, the fraud stopped," said DCP (Cyber-Mumbai), Dr Balsing Rajput.
Five cases from local police stations were transferred to the Cyber Crime Unit in March after a rapid rise in fraud cases was seen, said joint commissioner of police (Mumbai-Crime) Lakhmi Gautam.
Among the 80 victims, actor-politician Nagma Morarji (48) had filed a complaint at Bandra police station in February after she lost Rs 99,998. She had received multiple OTPs on her phone which the scammers had access to. The amount was credited to a nationalised bank account. In the second case, actor Malavika aka Shweta Menon (43) filed a complaint at Khar police station after losing Rs 57,636.
Explaining the modus operandi, Dr Rajput said: "Data of victims was stolen from those who clicked on the link and their banking details accessed. It was used to add beneficiaries to the net banking account and around Rs 1 lakhtransferred through the account before the account holder knew it."
The cyber team arrested the four of the racket - Mithun Mandal (23), Rohit Mandal (32), Dyaneshwar Mandal (32) - who used to live in worli and were assigned the job of withdrawing money from the bank. Amitkumar Chaudhary (40) who operated the call centre and got hold of customers' data used to stay in Bhayander.