Ghaziabad: Police have arrested four people for allegedly cheating customers by promising to arrange vehicles for transporting goods.The accused have been identified as Saurabh Singh (28) and Abhishek Awasthi (26), both residents of Farrukhabad, Rakesh Singh (21) of Lakhimpur Kheri and Dashmesh Kumar (23) of Badaun.According to police, the gang allegedly created a transport ID in the name of Gujarat Maharashtra Road Line on Justdial to obtain the contact details of people looking to transport goods from one place to another. Saurabh, Abhishek and Rakesh allegedly called these customers using mobile numbers obtained through fake IDs and offered to arrange the vehicles they required.After agreeing on a fare, the accused allegedly demanded 50% of the amount as advance. Customers usually transferred around 30% of the fare online to accounts or mobile numbers provided by the accused. The money was withdrawn immediately using ATM cards linked to bank accounts opened using the identity documents of other people.The promised transportation service was never provided, police said.DCP Surendra Nath Tiwari said Dashmesh allegedly arranged the fake SIM cards and bank accounts used in the fraud. Dashmesh was involved in selling and porting SIM cards and allegedly worked with his associates Vikas, Ajay, Surjit and Vijay.According to police, when villagers approached Dashmesh and his associates to buy SIM cards, they allegedly activated two or three additional SIM cards using their identity documents. Dashmesh also allegedly used an ID linked to NSDL Payment Bank to open online bank accounts using identity documents obtained from villagers. Mobile numbers obtained through fake IDs were registered with these accounts, while the ATM cards were delivered to Dashmesh’s shop or an address provided by him.These accounts and SIM cards were then allegedly supplied to the other accused. Saurabh allegedly paid Dashmesh and his associates Rs 4,000 for each account and SIM.Police said Saurabh, Abhishek and Rakesh used the SIM cards to call customers and cheap keypad phones to make the calls. Once a complaint was made and transactions in an account were stopped, the accused allegedly broke and discarded the ATM card, SIM card and phone associated with the account before switching to another SIM card and phone.The accused made calls while sitting in isolated locations near routes or while travelling to prevent their locations from being traced, police said.Tiwari said complaints against the accused had been received on the cyber crime portal, following which Muradnagar police conducted an investigation and arrested the four men. Police said documents recovered from the accused revealed four incidents in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and West Bengal.A keypad mobile phone allegedly used in the fraud and four mobile bills were recovered from the accused. Police said the mobile numbers mentioned on the bills matched those allegedly used to call victims and obtain money from them.The accused allegedly divided the money obtained through the fraud among themselves, police said. Further investigation is underway.
