Representative image showing cyber fraudster
Credit: iStock photo
New Delhi: Delhi Police has arrested a 25-year-old man for allegedly duping victims by posing as a customer care executive and gaining remote access to their mobile phones through malicious applications, an official on Friday said.
The accused, identified as Asad Ali Abbas, was arrested in West Bengal’s Kolkata, he said.
Abbas, a resident of Kolkata, targeted victims who searched for customer care helpline numbers online, the official said.
In one such case reported on April 17, the complainant had applied for a new credit card from a bank which was supposed to be delivered to his home. However, the credit card could not be delivered as he was not present at the time of the visit.
“The complainant later searched for the delivery service’s customer care number online and contacted a number listed in the search results," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), West, Vichitra Veer.
"The person, who answered pretending to be from customer support, asked him to make a nominal payment of Rs 5 for redelivery and sent a malicious file for the transaction,” he added.
After downloading the file, the complainant was unable to complete the transaction and subsequently Rs 50,000 was fraudulently debited from his bank account via UPI, the DCP said.
The complainant during probe shared transaction screenshots, revealing that the payment had been routed through a mobile payment app to a suspicious UPI ID, police said.
Abbas, who was subsequently arrested in Kolkata, confessed during interrogation that he was involved in a series of cyber frauds, often sending infected application files to unsuspecting victims, they said.
Once the victims installed these apps, he was able to remotely control their devices and siphon off money through fraudulent means, police said.
A smartphone and a SIM card allegedly used in the commission of the crime were recovered from the accused, they said.
At least five more cyber complaints were linked to the same beneficiary account, suggesting the involvement of Abbas in multiple such scams, police said.