Fake KYC Scam Unravelled: Credit Card Fraud Gang Held from Dhanbad
New Delhi, October 26: Police have unravelled a major cyber fraud network operating out of Jamtara in Jharkhand. The Shahdara Cyber Police Station arrested two suspects from Dhanbad, and one of them is a BTech graduate. The case involves credit card fraud.
The accused are accused of defrauding over 50 people. They posed as bank officers and used screen sharing during fake KYC verification sessions to gain access to victims' cards. Several expensive mobile phones worth lakhs of rupees were bought through unauthorised credit card transactions.
DCP Shahdara Rajendra Prasad Meena said that the Shahdara Cyber Police Station had registered e-FIR number 292/2026 on the complaint of Taranjit Singh. Singh stated that people claiming to be HDFC Bank officials had collected his credit card details on the pretext of a KYC update. A mobile phone worth Rs 1,39,999 was then bought from JioMart and delivered to the Jharia area of Dhanbad in Jharkhand.
Taking the matter seriously, police formed a special team under SHO Inspector Vijay Kumar. The team included SI Shyam Bihari Sharan, SI Vivek Yadav and other officers. They carried out an intensive four-day operation in Jharkhand.
The police used a delivery person to set up a trap, arranging a fake mobile delivery at the same location. When the accused came to collect the package, they were apprehended. The arrested men are 24-year-old Aftab Ansari and 23-year-old Abdul Majid, both residents of Borwa village in Jamtara district. Three mobile phones were seized from them, and WhatsApp chats and other digital evidence were found on the devices.
Investigators found that the gang ran fake ads on Facebook and other social media, offering assistance with credit card KYC updates. Users who clicked on these ads were asked to fill online forms that gave the gang their personal information. The accused then called victims, posing as bank officials, and persuaded them, especially people above 50 years of age, to join video calls, show their card details and share their screens. The gang used the OTPs they could see to order expensive phones from JioMart and Flipkart.
According to police, the stolen phones were delivered to places outside Jamtara, across Jharkhand and West Bengal, and sold at lower prices in local markets. To avoid suspicion, the phones were sold in sealed packs with bills.
Aftab Ansari is a BTech graduate and is technically capable. Police are now looking into the other members of the gang, the total amount of money defrauded, and whether the gang is linked to other cases.