The Odisha Crime Branch arrested three cyber fraudsters of a ‘Jamtara gang’, who were wanted in over 170 cases across 20 states in the country, from Bhubaneswar on Saturday.
The three fraudsters have been identified as Pradhum Kumar Mandel, Krishnakumar Mandal and Chetlal Mandal. All the three are residents of Jharkhand. They were living in a rented house in Bhubaneswar since December last year, sources in the Crime Branch said.
Acting on a tip off, the Crime Branch sleuths raided the house in the Capital City of Odisha and nabbed the trio. Many incriminating materials, including 33 SIM cards belonging to Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal telecom circles were seized from their possession.
Crime Branch sources said the trio is a part of larger 'Jamtara gang' (cyber criminal gangs operating out of Jamtara in Jharkhand) which has been defrauding people across the country through UPI, credit card and other frauds.
During interrogation, the three have admitted to contacting a large number of people of Odisha and other states by sending bulk SMS and Voice calls impersonating themselves as bank officials and asking gullible bank account holders to share their bank details for KYC updating.
After getting the credentials from the account holders, they used to transfer the money from the account of the victim to various digital payment platforms.
Primary investigation revealed that they contacted more than 4,38,834 people in different states including Odisha . The three accused are part of a larger group and continue shifting to different locations across the country, while committing the crimes, in order to avoid arrest, sources added.