Two Cyber Criminals Impersonating Bank Officials Arrested by Delhi Police from Jharkhand and Bengal

New Delhi — The Delhi Police has arrested two cyber fraudsters, Shankar Dan (27) and Pradeep Kumar Dan (26), who posed as bank officials and scammed people. Both men hail from Dhanbad, Jharkhand. While Shankar was nabbed in Jharkhand, Pradeep was caught in Birbhum, West Bengal.

The arrests were made following a complaint filed on June 30, after which the Cyber Police of South-West District initiated an investigation. The police seized six smartphones, including the ones used for calling and running the fraudulent BillDesk application.

The complainant had received a call from a person claiming to be an SBI official about a bounced cheque. A malicious link was sent via WhatsApp, leading to an .APK file installation. Post installation, unauthorized access was gained to the complainant’s Bandhan Bank account, resulting in a total loss of ?10.64 lakh, including premature closure of fixed deposits and transactions via Google Ads.

Further investigation revealed that OTPs were redirected to another number and the money was transferred via BillDesk to pay for Axis Bank credit card bills and Google services.

Based on technical surveillance, the accused were tracked to Dhanbad. Shankar was caught with four phones; later, Pradeep was arrested from Tarapith, West Bengal. He had two phones, including the one used for the fraud.

During questioning, Shankar admitted to using Amazon Pay to extract bank details linked to mobile numbers, impersonating bank staff, and sending malware to victims. Pradeep handled the financial side using the BillDesk app. Shankar received a 50% cut, earning around ?5 lakh; Pradeep got 20%.

With inputs from IANS