MUMBAIUpdated: Apr 15, 2017 23:57 Ist
HT Correspondent Hindustan Times |
The cyber police have appealed to people to not upload identity documents such as Aadhaar cards, PAN cards, and election IDs to the internet.(Picture for representation)
Officials from the cyber police station investigating the online fraud case, in which 310 SIM cards were used to dupe people by luring them to websites offering sex, have found that documents used to obtain SIM cards were stolen from the internet.
The SIM cards were used by the five accused to open Paytm accounts (e-wallet accounts), where their ‘clients’ were made to pay Rs999 as a one-time registration fee. After collecting the money, they would close the account and open a new one. They opened several such accounts, duping 2,000 people in just a few months.
The cyber police have appealed to people to not upload identity documents such as Aadhaar cards, PAN cards, and election IDs to the internet.
The accused simply typed words such as ‘Election ID’ on Google, and got their hands on samples as well as genuine documents, which were later used to obtain the SIM cards used in the crime.
Deputy commissioner of police, cyber, Akhileshkumar Singh told HT, “We found out that the accused lifted documents from the internet and used them to obtain SIM cards. We are analysing how many documents they managed to obtain in this manner. The five accused were running this racket under the guise of a private firm. The documents of the people who worked for this firm were also used to obtain SIM cards.”
The SIM cards were from various mobile network service providers, and all of them were issued from Mumbai.
The cyber police refused to divulge further details, saying that the probe is at a nascent stage.
The accused also convinced people to give their documents on the pretext of finding them jobs. These documents were also misused to obtain the SIM cards, said Singh.