The phishing gang that allegedly created the duplicate Facebook account of Nalgonda SP A.V. Ranganath last month, with a view to making a fast buck, was nabbed at a village near Bharatpur of Rajasthan, police sources said on Thursday.
Not only the social media account of the SP, but as many as 230 officers’ accounts from south Indian States were targeted. At least, a hundred police officers from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were among them, officials said.
An investigation team that had gone to Rajasthan, reportedly following a cyber trail, was believed to have crucial evidence to pin down the miscreants. Four key persons of the total 15 suspects, including a minor, were being brought to Nalgonda.
“About 20 SIM cards were found with them. They were also able to manipulate the tower location of their SIM card, and used each card for not more than five mobile payment transactions,” an official said.
They were not educated beyond the 10th grade, but created a database of photographs and related credentials to make money.
On September 18, Mr. Ranganath was alerted by a friend to a mobile payment request to be done in favour of his wife. The cyber team soon confirmed that a duplicate account had been created, and as per information, the miscreants’ location was Odisha. The location was later found to be false.
The accused would be produced before media soon.
