Delhi Police say two men posing as bank staff tricked more than 50 mostly older people on video calls. Here is how the scam worked and how to spot it.
Delhi Police have arrested two men from Jharkhand, India, who allegedly cheated more than 50 people by pretending to be bank officials on video calls. Police say most victims were over 50. One of the two accused is a BTech graduate, meaning he holds an engineering degree. Police shared the details on Sunday.
Police say the men told victims their credit card KYC details needed updating. KYC stands for "know your customer," the identity checks banks do. Victims were allegedly pushed to share their card number and CVV, the three-digit security code on the card. They were also asked to turn on screen sharing during the call.
Screen sharing let the fraudsters see one-time passwords, or OTPs, as they arrived. An OTP is the short code a bank sends to approve a payment. With it, police say, the men could make unauthorized transactions.
The case began on September 23, when a complainant said fraudsters posing as bank officials had cheated him. Police traced a phone worth Rs 1,39,999 that had been bought with a disputed credit card transaction and delivered in Jharia, in Dhanbad district.
Using technical surveillance and local checks, the team tracked the suspects. With a delivery person's help, police arranged a decoy phone delivery at a spot the accused had used before. That led to the arrest of Aftab Ansari, 24, and Abdul Majid, 23, both from Jamtara district, on Wednesday in Dhanbad after a four-day operation. Police recovered three mobile phones holding chats and other digital evidence.
Police say the accused and their associates advertised KYC help on social media. They allegedly used stolen card details to buy expensive phones online. The phones were delivered to places in Jharkhand and West Bengal, then sold in local markets at lower prices.
Police say the investigation is still underway. The material does not say how much money victims lost in total, or whether other people have been arrested or charged.
Never give a card number, CVV or one-time code to a caller, and never share your screen with someone claiming to be your bank.
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