How an Uttarakhand man helped run cyber scams in multiple countries

At a press conference he held in Dehradun Monday, Inspector General (Crime and Law and Order) Nilesh Anand Bharne identified the arrested as “Sohil”, the pseudonym given to the alleged kingpin, a resident of Manglaur town in Haridwar district.

According to the police, Sohil and his accomplices would use government incentives or gifts such as coffee mugs to persuade women to part with their Aadhaar and biometric details, which they would then use to buy SIM cards to generate social media OTPs that would then allegedly sell anywhere between Rs 3 and Rs 50.

According to the police, the suspect had used over 20,000 SIM cards this way.

It was a cybercrime case filed by a Dehradun resident in April that led the police to the ring, Bharne told the media. According to this complaint, a woman who called herself Kalyani from Chennai posed as a metal investment advisor and scammed the complainant for eight months by promising to triple his returns if he invested through a certain website.

“She shared screenshots of chats where others claimed to have made profits, which persuaded him (the complainant) to invest. After receiving his WhatsApp number, she guided him on setting up an account on the website and linked him with a programmer, who instructed him on where and how to invest,” Bharne said.

After an initial investment of Rs 10,000 gave him a profit of Rs 23,776 in two days, he felt encouraged and decided to invest Rs 25,000 but was allegedly told that he must invest up to Rs 50,000 or risk losing money.

“To avoid losing his initial investment, he deposited another Rs. 25,000. However, later, when asked to invest an additional Rs. 1 lakh, he grew suspicious,” Bharne said, adding that when he threatened to report the scam to cybercrime authorities, his number was blocked and the website became inaccessible.

While investigating this case, registered at Nehru Colony police station in Dehradun, the police traced back to Sohil.

“Through thorough data analysis, they collected vital technical and digital evidence, revealing that the mastermind had deceived women into providing their Aadhaar cards, photos, and thumbprints by promising them a set of cups (mugs) under a fake government scheme, which led to SIM cards being issued in their names,” a statement issued by Uttarakhand police said.

The suspect was arrested after multiple raids. “Authorities recovered 1,816 SIM cards, two cheque books, five mobile phones, and two biometric devices from his possession,” the statement said.

According to the police, the scale of the fraud is still under investigation. But the suspect has allegedly revealed during questioning that he would eventually destroy the SIM cards.

“Thousands of SIM cards were fraudulently linked to other women’s IDs, with OTPs sold to scammers in WhatsApp groups based in China and Cambodia, who trapped innocent individuals through WhatsApp calls and Instagram scams. Investigations are ongoing into various other aspects of this elaborate fraud scheme,” the statement said.