The Crime Branch on Saturday arrested three notorious cybercriminals in Bhubaneswar for defrauding people from through online payment platforms.
As many as 171 cyber fraud cases are lodged against the accused in 20 States.
Crime Branch ADG Sanjeeb Panda said the three accused were staying in a rented accommodation at Rasulgarh of the city since December 28, 2021 and operating from there. They had identified themselves as students while taking the house on rent.
The accused were identified as Pradhum Kumar Mondal (20), Krishna Kumar Mondal (19) and Chetlal Modnal (28). While two of them are from Giridih of Jharkhand, the other one is from Dhanbad, Panda said.
Police seized 33 SIM cards, 11 mobile phones, two laptops, a tab and two debit cards from them.
Panda said the trio’s modus operandi was they contacted a large number of people of Odisha and other States by sending bulk SMSs to them and making voice calls impersonating themselves as bank officials. They then collected credentials of bank customers and cleaned off huge amounts of money from their accounts.
The accused are part of larger group which frequently changed places so that they were not tracked and arrested after committing the crimes.