The cyber cell has arrested an individual named Mohammad Ajruddin for cheating Indian Air Force personnel on the online marketplace by indulging in identity theft.
According to the report by Times of India journalist Raj Shekar Jha, the accused Mohammad Ajruddin and his gang had created various fake IDs of the army and paramilitary personnel on e-commerce platforms to lure victims on the online marketplace OLX.
The accused who had created fake IDs impersonating army and paramilitary personnel allegedly copied photographs from genuine Facebook or Instagram profiles of these individuals and assured the victims that they would buy their product by making advance payment for it through UPI platforms.
2/6 They copied photographs from their genuine Facebook or Instagram profiles. On the pretext of being posted in difficult terrain, the accused persons assured the victims that they would make an advance payment for the product that they want to buy.
— Raj Shekhar Jha (@rajshekharTOI) May 23, 2020
The accused and his gang generated UPI link and sent to the victims asking them to accept the payment by entering the pin. However, the request was not for crediting the money into the victim’s account but debiting money from their account. The victims, having trusted these persons as reputed army personnel, did not cross-verify the said UPI links sent by these accused.
According to Jha, the money instead of being credited to the victims’ accounts, got debited to the accounts attached to the accused. After the victims realising the scam, have called up the accused and demanded the money back.
4/6 And thus the money, instead of being credited to the victims’ accounts, got debited. After this, the victim called up the accused and demanded the money back. The accused conned them again.
— Raj Shekhar Jha (@rajshekharTOI) May 23, 2020
Meanwhile, the accused reassured the victims saying the money was debited from their account due to some error and sent another link promising them to send for twice the amount to compensate for the previous erroneous transfer.
Conning the victim another time, the accused persons took twice the money yet again. Reportedly, the accused have conned few others using this method and have siphoned off lakhs of rupees from the victims’ account.
The accused used SIM cards sourced on fake IDs to avoid detection. All the accused have been arrested by the cyber cell police.
