Interstate gang e-scammed 52 in A’bad, 162 in Surat

Ahmedabad: Two cyber crooks from Ahmedabad’s Rakhial — and their accomplices in Bihar, West Bengal, and Jharkhand — have cheated 250 people in Gujarat, of whom 52 were Amdavadis. Most of the victims of the gang led by Rakhial’s Mohsinkhan Pathan and Sohailkhan Pathan were from Surat. In all, 162 from the Diamond City had been cheated using the ruse of KYC (know your customer) or e-wallet updates. “Other victims come from across the state,” said a top official of the cyber cell of Ahmedabad Police. “The total amount stolen from Gujarat runs into crores.” The cyber cell on Wednesday arrested the Pathans.

The gang has targeted people in Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Punjab, and Delhi. “We have informed the states concerned about the arrests and are coordinating with them to determine the number of victims in each state,” the official said.

According to top cyber cell sources, Sohailkhan had given the data of thousands of people to his associates in Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal. “We have got the details of about 300 people in the data set and are analyzing them,” a cyber cell source said. “We will get the details of victims from other states too. Then several teams will be dispatched across the country to track the crooks.”

The gang’s operations came to light recently when a complaint was finally filed in connection with a November 2019 case involving Akbar Gulliwala of Jamalpur. Gulliwala had received a call from an unknown number in November last year.

The caller persuaded Gulliwala to share his bank details, ostensibly to update his KYC. In the end, the crooks siphoned off Rs 98,000 from Gulliwala’s bank account.Gulliwala died in May 2020 of Covid, yet no complaint was filed even at that stage. At last, his son managed to have a complaint filed at the beginning of August. “During investigation it was found that the money siphoned off from Gulliwala’s account was transferred to e-wallets and then to some bank accounts,” an investigator said. “One of the accounts belonged to Sohailkhan.”Investigators said they have learnt that Sohailkhan and Mohsinkhan used to collect customer data on the pretext of selling ayurvedic medicines.

Cheap phones used as lure

The crooks also ran another scam, cheating people with the lure of cheap phones. Sometimes, they would hold up the promise of such a phone as a gift for updating KYC. Cyber cell officials said that the crooks used to trick their targets into downloading an app that enabled them to steal the money. “As for selling Android phones at attractive rates, the crooks’ offer was Rs 5,000,” an investigator said. “After the targets paid the money, they got a box containing not a phone, but some powder.”