In a weird case of cyber fraud, a bunch of fraudsters allegedly procured PAN particulars of a number of Bollywood actors and cricketers from their GST Identification Numbers which can be found on-line, and bought bank cards issued of their names from Pune-based fintech startup ‘One Card’. Some of the celebrities whose names and particulars had been utilized by the fraudsters are Abhishek Bachchan, Shilpa Shetty, Madhuri Dixit, Emraan Hashmi and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) of Shahadra Rohit Meena mentioned.
“Since investigation into the matter is underway, we cannot comment further on it,” Meena advised PTI. The firm bought wind of the fraud subsequently however not earlier than the fraudsters used a few of these playing cards to buy merchandise value Rs 21.32 lakh. It instantly alerted the Delhi Police which swung into motion and arrested 5 of them.
The 5 accused, recognized as Puneet, Mohd Asif, Sunil Kumar, Pankaj Mishar and Vishwa Bhaskar Sharma, acted in shut coordination to defraud the corporate in a really uncommon method, Delhi Police sources mentioned.
“After arrest, once they had been interrogated, they disclosed their distinctive modus operandi. They used to get GST particulars of those celebrities from Google. They had been very effectively conscious that the primary two digits of GSTIN are state code and the following 10 digits are PAN quantity,? one of many sources mentioned.
The supply added, “Since the celebrities date of birth are available on Google, these two — PAN and date of birth — complete the PAN details. They got the PAN cards remade fraudulently putting their own pictures on it so that during video verification, their looks match with the photo available on PAN/Aadhaar card.”
For occasion, the PAN card of Abhishek Bachchan had his PAN and date of delivery however an image of one of many accused.
They solid their Aadhaar particulars in related style. After getting this data, they utilized for bank cards. During video verification, they had been requested questions associated to their monetary actions which they answered simply as that they had bought all such particulars from CIBIL.
The supply knowledgeable that they had been conscious that these celebrities presumably have good CIBIL scores which might brighten their possibilities of getting bank cards.
“Also, they were aware that the online verification system cannot identify Abhishek Bachchan as a film star. So the picture of accused Pankaj Mishra with Abhishek Bachchan’s PAN and Aadhaar details worked well to get a card issued,” he added.
Further investigation is on and it’s suspected that they may have used related modus operandi to get bank cards from different banks and monetary establishments.
Police sources additionally knowledgeable that they did on-line analysis for a number of months to search out methods to make use of loopholes within the on-line verification and issuance of bank cards.
The Pune-based FPL Technologies Private Limited points “One Card” which is a contactless metallic bank card together with a digital rendition of the identical within the One Card and One Score App ?in order that the client can use it for any on-line or app-based transactions or purchases,? the corporate mentioned in its grievance to the police.
The firm additional alleged that these fraudsters approached the corporate by their app by importing the small print reminiscent of PAN and Aadhaar quantity to get bank cards issued of their names.
The credit score restrict of the cardboard was permitted after ?considering the bureau particulars, that’s, the data of the client saved with the credit score data corporations, for instance CIBIL, to ascertain the genuineness and authenticity of the applicant and its credentials,? the grievance mentioned.
It added, ?They left the unique PAN and Aadhaar quantity and the date of the delivery intact and uploaded the cast PAN card/Aadhaar card on our app. Accordingly, our system fetched the bureau particulars based mostly on the unique PAN and steered a credit score restrict.?
The firm’s grievance acknowledged that by misusing the identical, ?the accused boarded with us by importing their actual time selfie which matched with the {photograph} on the cast PAN card/Aadhaar card. Accordingly, bank cards had been issued to the accused individuals with an permitted credit score restrict of Rs 10 lakh every.”
?The permitted credit score restrict was exhausted/withdrawn by the accused inside a span of per week and nothing has been repaid to us,? the FIR mentioned.
It added, ?We got here to learn about this fraud when our system bought an alert that a number of on boarding makes an attempt had been being made utilizing a single gadget. To simplify, the accused tried to onboard with us utilizing a complete of 83 PAN particulars from seven gadgets.?
The firm additionally delivered some bodily bank cards to the addresses talked about on a number of the paperwork.
(The above article is sourced from information company PTI. Zeenews.com has made no editorial modifications to the article. News company PTI is solely liable for the contents of the article)
