Five held for duping Delhi man in credit card fraud, fake website unearthed

Five people have been arrested for allegedly cheating a Delhi resident by posing as bank representatives and obtaining his credit card details on the pretext of increasing his credit limit, an official said on Thursday.

The accused have been identified as Karan alias Kake, 30, Rakesh Kumar alias Rana, 47, Faizan, 23, Raunak, 26, and Gaurav Sharma, 24, all residents of Delhi, police said.

The case was registered on September 9 on a complaint by Prashant Sharma, a resident of Karawal Nagar.

According to the complaint, Sharma received a call from a person claiming to be a bank representative who offered to enhance the credit limit of his credit card. Believing the caller, he entered his confidential card details on a fraudulent website created by the accused, police said.

The details were subsequently misused and unauthorised transactions amounting to around Rs 31,663 were carried out, causing financial loss to the victim, they said.

During investigation, police found that the cheated money had been used to purchase a one-gram gold bar through a website. The item was subsequently delivered to an unspecified address in Tilak Nagar, they said.

Technical analysis of the fake bank website led police to Gaurav Sharma, who allegedly created and operated the fraudulent website. Raunak was identified as the facilitator who allegedly made the payment for creation of the website, officials said.

Further investigation revealed that Karan and Rakesh were allegedly operating a call centre from Mangolpuri, where they posed as bank representatives and contacted potential victims to obtain their confidential credit card details.

Faizan allegedly acted as a facilitator and provided SIM cards and mobile phones to the two callers to help conceal their identities and facilitate the fraud, police said.

Police conducted a raid on September 9 and apprehended Karan and Rakesh. Their interrogation led to the identification and subsequent arrest of Faizan, Gaurav and Raunak, police said.

The accused allegedly told police that they operated as a coordinated network, with callers approaching victims with offers of increased credit limits and directing them to websites designed to resemble those of genuine banks.

Once the victims entered their card details, the information was allegedly used to carry out unauthorised transactions. Multiple mobile phones and SIM cards were used to conceal the identities of the callers, while other members arranged the technical infrastructure, police said.

Police recovered one mobile phone allegedly used by Karan to communicate with the complainant and eight other mobile phones from Karan and Rakesh, which were allegedly used to contact other potential victims.

A laptop was recovered from Gaurav and is suspected to have been used to create and operate the fake bank website, police said.

Police said 14 complaints registered on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal from different parts of the country have so far been linked to the mobile phones recovered from the accused.

Karan, a Class 10 pass, sells footwear in Begampur and has one previous case of house theft, while Rakesh, a Class 8 pass, also sells footwear and has a previous Arms Act case, police said.

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Faizan, who is allegedly involved in three previous cases of robbery, theft and cheating, was identified as a SIM card provider. Raunak sells mobile phone accessories in Karol Bagh, while Gaurav, a BCom graduate preparing for government jobs, allegedly created the fraudulent website, they said.

Further investigation is underway to identify other associates, establish their respective roles, trace the remaining proceeds of crime and recover the cheated amount, police said.