2 held for routing cyber money through electricity bill payments

New Delhi: Two men were arrested for allegedly helping cyber fraudsters convert proceeds of online scams into cash by paying consumers’ electricity bills in Delhi and collecting the amount in cash thereafter, an officer said on Friday.

The police arrested Phool Singh, 30, and Sushil Kumar, 40, during an investigation into an online fraud case in which a Delhi resident was cheated of over Rs 2.24 lakh, he said.

According to the police, the complainant, a resident of Shakarpur, was allegedly duped after fraudsters posing as officials of a gas company persuaded him to install a malicious APK application on his mobile phone. The application enabled unauthorised transactions from his credit card. During the investigation, police traced Rs 1.82 lakh of the defrauded money to the payment of an electricity bill, police said.

A police officer said the investigation revealed that the accused arranged electricity bills of genuine consumers and got them paid using proceeds of cyber fraud through a network of intermediaries. After the bills were cleared, the corresponding amount was allegedly collected in cash from the consumers, while the accused retained commissions of five to 10 per cent before routing the remaining money further through the network.