Deoghar Cybercrime Crackdown: Six Held for Allegedly Posing as Bank, Customer-Care Officials

Six suspected cyber fraudsters were arrested in Jharkhand's Deoghar district following a police crackdown in the Sarath police station area, officials said.

The arrests were made on October 7 during an operation launched on the directions of Deoghar Superintendent of Police Praveen Pushkar and conducted under the leadership of Deputy Superintendent of Police Kailash Prasad Mahto.

Acting on a tip-off, police raided locations where the suspects were allegedly involved in defrauding people by impersonating customer-care executives of Flipkart, Amazon Pay and PhonePe, officials said. They also allegedly posed as Airtel Payments Bank officials and representatives associated with the PM-Kisan scheme.

The arrested suspects have been identified as Mohammad Salauddin Ansari, 25, of Kapsa under Sarath police station; Rajababu, 21, of Chhalapathar under Palojori; Chandan Das, 30, and Rajnandan Das, 21, both from Kharwajori under Patharadda OP; Ashish Das, 18, of Budhibagicha under Madhupur; and Manoj Das, 22, of Pathraul.

According to police, the suspects allegedly used fake customer-care identities to lure victims with cashback offers and other inducements before attempting to defraud them.

Police said another method involved sending APK files disguised as applications related to PM-Kisan, electricity bills or RTO challans. The files were allegedly used to gain access to victims' mobile devices and facilitate cyber fraud.

In a separate modus operandi, the suspects allegedly impersonated Airtel Payments Bank officials and used the Airtel Thanks app to deceive customers on the pretext of blocking and subsequently reactivating their cards.

Nine mobile phones and 10 SIM cards were seized during the operation. Police said technical analysis of the seized devices and mobile numbers has allegedly linked them with cyber fraud complaints registered in several states.

The operation involved personnel from the Cyber Police Station and Sarath police station. The raid team included Cyber Police Station Inspector Ajay Kumar, Sarath SHO Deepak Kumar Sah and their respective teams, along with ASI Shivcharan Honhaga of Palojori police station and his team.

Police said further technical analysis and investigation are underway to establish the wider network and identify other possible links to cyber fraud cases.