Hyderabad: Cyberabad Cybercrime police busted an organised inter-state online fraud racket and apprehended six accused involved in vishing, SIM manipulation, One-Time Password (OTP) diversion, and fraudulent online banking transactions.

The accused individuals allegedly impersonated officials from Citibank Prestige’s Credit Card Division and manipulated victims to convert e-SIMs into physical SIM cards under the pretext of Department of Technology verification.

They dispatched preloaded mobile devices containing malicious applications to victims through courier services. When the victims inserted the SIM cards, OTPs and banking alerts were diverted to the accused persons, enabling unauthorised access to bank accounts, leading to fraudulent online transactions.

The accused, identified as Selim Mondal, is from West Bengal. He worked at a cell phone shop there. He was arrested on May 11 on a transit warrant and remanded to judicial custody. On May 30, cash amounting to Rs 7 lakh was recovered from his residence.

The police had earlier recovered Rs 15 lakh from another two accused in the case. A total of Rs 77,75,451 was seized from the individuals in the online fraud.

The case was registered under Sections 318(4) (cheating), 319(2) (cheating by personation), 336(3) (forgery), 338 (forgery of valuable security), 340(2) (forged document or electronic record) BNS and Section 66-D of IT Act at the Cyberabad Cybercrime police station.
Further investigation is ongoing.

The police have advised the public not to share OTPs, banking credentials, or SIM-related information with unknown persons over phone calls. The authorities urged citizens not to insert SIM cards into unknown or courier-delivered devices received from unverified sources.