Pension Fraud: Using 120 Fake Accounts Jamtara Cyber Criminals Made Rs 4.5 Cr, 1 Arrested By UP Cyber Police

NOIDA: The gang behind duping Punjab Member of Parliament (MP) Preneet Kaur, wife of Punjab’s Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh is now on Uttar Police radar for pension fraud. The gang from Jharkhand’s Jamtara has cheating several retired policemen by posing as treasury officers.

Uttar Pradesh Cyber Police have arrested one of the key members of the gang who was behind duping retired police officers. During questioning, he told the police, retired officers in cities across the country have received phone calls from a gang claiming to be from the government’s treasury department. The callers want to know about the retired officers’ bank accounts because their pension data has been updated.

Noor Ali, who was also arrested by the Punjab Police after cheating Kaur is now in the UP police net. He disclosed that the gang had more than 120 fake bank accounts and mobile wallets which were used to circulate money made by cheating. The gang so far has made more than Rs 4.5 crore. They withdrew the money by buying gift vouchers and coupons.

“The caller identified himself as a treasury officer before telling the officer that the data on pensions with the treasury department has been corrupted and he needs the officers’ assistance in filling in the gaps. The caller then starts asking for information such as bank account numbers, passwords, and transaction details,” explained a senior police officer.

UP Police is conducting searches to arrest other gang members who were behind the fraud. Karmatar has a tainted past of its own. It was a hamlet of a few huts a few years ago. In their pursuit of opulence, cyber fraudsters resorted to methods that would provide them with quick cash. The once sleepy hamlet of small huts has now been transformed into a town of palatial houses.

In the last six years, the Narayanpur and Karmatar cyber frauds have fraudulently siphoned off large sums from the bank accounts of innocent people from Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa, Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.