A bizarre case of cyber fraud, straight out of a film plot, was reported in Delhi. Criminals allegedly hatched a detailed plot to use PAN card details of several Bollywood actors, popular cricketers including MS Dhoni to get credit cards issued in their names from a Pune-based fintech startup ‘One Card’.
The group of fraudsters allegedly procured PAN details of the celebrities from their GST Identification Numbers which are available online, reports PTI.
Some of the celebrities whose names were used by the fraudsters include Abhishek Bachchan, Shilpa Shetty, Madhuri Dixit, Emraan Hashmi and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) of Shahadra Rohit Meena told PTI.
“Since an investigation into the matter is underway, we cannot comment further on it,” Meena said.
Using credit cards with celebrity names, the fraudsters allegedly bought products worth Rs 21.32 lakh. This further triggered action by the Delhi police prompting the arrest of five people.
The company too got wind of the fraud as a result of transactions made by the fraudsters.
Pune-based FPL Technologies Private Limited issues “One Card” which is a contactless metal credit card along with a virtual rendition of the same in the One Card and One Score App “so that the customer can use it for any online or app-based transactions or purchases,” the company said in its complaint to the police.
The Plot
The five accused, identified as Puneet, Mohd Asif, Sunil Kumar, Pankaj Mishar and Vishwa Bhaskar Sharma, acted in close coordination to defraud the company in a very unusual manner, Delhi Police sources told PTI.
According to police sources, “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 by using their own pictures on it so that during video verification, their looks match with the photo available on PAN/Aadhaar card.” For instance, the PAN card of Abhishek Bachchan had his PAN and date of birth but a picture of one of the accused.
They reportedly forged their Aadhaar details in a similar way. After getting this information, they applied for credit cards. During video verification, they were asked questions related to their financial activities which they answered easily as they had received all the necessary details from CIBIL.
Fake Aadhaar, PAN Cards
According to the police, further investigation is underway. It is suspected that they may have used a similar modus operandi to get credit cards from other banks and financial institutions.
The company further alleged that these fraudsters approached the company through their app by uploading details such as PAN and Aadhaar number. This was to get credit cards issued in their names.
According to the complaint filed by the company, “We came to know about this fraud when our system got an alert that multiple on-boarding attempts were being made using a single device. The accused tried to onboard with us by using 83 PAN details from seven devices.” The company also delivered some physical credit cards to some of the addresses listed on the documents.
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