Delhi: Two held for routing cyber fraud money through electricity bill payments
Two men have been arrested for allegedly helping cyber fraudsters convert proceeds of online scams into cash by paying consumers' electricity bills in Delhi and then collecting the amount in cash, an officer said on Friday, Aug 7.
Police arrested Phool Singh, 30 and Sushil Kumar, 40 during investigation into an online fraud case in which a Delhi resident was cheated of over Rs 2.24 lakh, he said.
According to police, the complainant is a resident of Shakarpur, was allegedly duped after fraudsters posing as officials of a gas company persuaded him to install a malicious APK application on his mobile phone, which enabled unauthorised transactions from his credit card.
During the investigation police traced Rs 1.82 lakh of the defrauded money to payment of an electricity bill.
A police officer mentioned the probe revealed that the accused arranged electricity bills of genuine consumers and got them paid using proceeds of cyber fraud through a network of intermediaries. After the bills were cleared, the corresponding amount was allegedly collected in cash from the consumers while the accused retained a commission of five to 10% before routing the remaining money further through the network.
"Sushil Kumar was allegedly linked to an associate based in Bihar who facilitated such transactions. The probe also revealed the duo's suspected links to cyber fraud cases registered in Mumbai and Karnataka," a senior police officer said.
Two mobile phones were seized from the accused and are being sent for forensic examination to establish their communications, financial transactions and links with other members of the network. Further investigation is under way to trace other members of the syndicate.
(With inputs from PTI)
