MUMBAI: It could be the first cyber detection in the string of fake electricity SMS cases in the city. Malabar Hill police on Wednesday arrested a 37-year-old waiter, who works in a Navi Mumbai restaurant, for alleged involvement in a fake SMS case in which Rs 1.7 lakh was siphoned from two credit cards of a Nepean Sea Road resident. It was a digital voucher, bought using the complainant's money, that led cops to the accused.
Police arrested Madan Sav, 37, and he was produced before a court later on Wednesday and remanded in police custody till July 11.
The 53-year-old complainant told police she had received an SMS asking to update her electricity bill. The message said if the bill was not paid, electricity supply would be disconnected. The woman called the number mentioned in the SMS and the person who answered the call claimed to be an 'electricity officer'. He told her to download QuickSupport, and to fill details of her credit cards. "The accused told her to send Rs10 to update the records and she followed the instructions. Later, she found that Rs1.7 lakh was transferred from her cards. An FIR was registered," said investigating officer, API Nilesh Bankar.
A team led by senior inspector Rajan Rane, comprising Bankar along with colleagues Suresh Dharwadkar, Snehal Kadam, Bajirao Sande and Munna Singh, began the probe. Investigators blocked Rs73,000, which the accused transferred to an online shopping portal; Rs50,000 each was transferred to a mobile payments and financial services and an online payment gateway. Cops worked on money transferred to mobile payments and financial services. Police got details that the money was used to buy digital vouchers from a retail chain of consumer electronics and durables. A person purchased a mobile phone from a Chembur outlet. "Police got CCTV footage and invoices. They learnt the man who bought the mobile was residing in Navi Mumbai," said police.
Police apprehended Sav from Navi Mumbai while he was returning home. They learnt that the man who had posed as an 'electricity officer' was from Jamtara. Sav is originally from Jharkhand and was staying in a rented room in Koparkhairane. A further probe is on.
