Cyber fraudsters are now posing as BBMP staff to cheat the public. Two suspected cyber crooks were arrested by the Bengaluru police recently.
Police said Shiva Prasad, 33, from Bidar, made phone calls to people by posing as a staffer from the BBMP ward office and offered help in paying the “Booth Level Officers (BLO) allowance fees”. He would take their debit card details and ask for the OTP.
Prasad made the phone calls from SIM cards provided by his friend, a Delhi man named Pankaj Choudhary, 24. Police said Choudhary submitted fake documents to register the SIMs and open bank accounts. Prasad was arrested from a lodge in Anand Rao Circle while Choudary was picked up from Delhi.
Their latest victim was Eramma G Danigondra, 52, a schoolteacher from Vidyaranyapura. On January 27, she received a phone call from an unknown number.
The caller claimed to be a staffer from the BBMP ward office in Vidyaranyapura and said she needed to pay the BLO allowance fee. Offering help, he took details of two debit cards from her and, after a few minutes, asked her to share the OTP. She fell into the trap and lost Rs 17,111.
Police said Prasad was a habitual cyber crook operating since at least 2017. He was last arrested in Mysuru but got bail in January.
After his release, he is suspected to have committed at least six cybercrimes in Bengaluru and two in Raichur. After each cybercrime, he bought mobile phones online and sold them on another portal.
Police believe the duo also cheated people in Davanagere and Shivamogga as well as in Assam and Maharashtra.
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