OTP sharing scam: One more accused arrested by STF

The Special Task Force (STF) has arrested one more person in connection with the one-time passwords (OTP) sharing scam with Pakistani intelligence operatives, on Wednesday.

The accused has been identified as Pradyumna Kumar Sahoo (32), a resident of Mahitama village under Nuagaon police station in Nayagarh.

Sahoo is a graduate and had earlier worked as a territory sales executive in several private telecom companies. At present, he is working with a fastag company, the STF informed.

According to the investigating agency, Sahoo had supplied and sold more than 500 pre-activated SIMs and over 150 pre-activated PayTM Wallets to Pathani Samanta Lenka, who was arrested earlier in connection with the case. 

These SIMs and Wallets were sold to various cyber criminals and PIO (Pakistani Intelligence Operatives). Some of the SIMs and wallets were used by PIOs and ISI agents including some based or located inside Pakistan mainly from Karachi and Baluchistan, the STF informed.

It is worthwhile to mention here that the STF had earlier arrested three persons on the charges of selling and sharing OTP with some criminals and anti-national elements. 

The accused were Pathanisamant Lenka, Saroj Kumar Nayak, and Soumya Pattanaik. One of the accused is an ITI teacher.

The STF had seized 19 costly mobile phones (Including Apple mobile), 47 SIM cards, 61 ATM cards, and 23 SIM covers from their possession.