Phishing gangs hack data of logistics companies, cheat customers

Gangs from Jharkhand are spinning a new kind of phishing attack.

Posing as employees of logistics companies, the fraudsters contact customers who want to send vehicles out of town. They take delivery of the vehicles from customers, give them false receipts and run away. When customers contact them to check the status of their consignment, the fraudsters would give them fictitious addresses.

Bengaluru police busted the gang by arresting three suspects on the basis of four complaints.

According to police, the scam was masterminded by a Jharkhand native named Deepak Sharma, who is an expert in hacking computer programmes. Police believe Sharma had hacked the data of some of the well-known logistics companies in Karnataka.

Sharma gave the data to members of his gang, whose job was to contact the customers by posing as employees of the logistics companies and pick up their cars or two-wheelers from their homes.

The gang members would issue receipts in the name of the respective logistics company and collect Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 as fuel charges.

Customers would realise the scam only after their vehicles aren’t delivered at the destination. This period would be a month or so. When customers contact the fraudsters, they would be given fake status reports.

If customers insisted on getting the vehicles back, they were asked to pay Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000.

Whitefield CEN police have arrested three members of the gang: Shiva Kumar alias Shivam, 20, Sandeep 21, and Pradeep, 19, all from Jharkhand. Sharma, along with other suspects named Rakesh and Tinu, are at large, police said.

The trio’s arrest helped the police recover a car, two-wheelers, three mobile phones and bill books of different logistics companies.

Police said the trio had arrived in Bengaluru at the behest of Sharma who had put them up in a rented house at Madanayakanahalli.