Duo had duped Doon resident posing as travel agents offering to book helicopter tickets to Vaishno Devi
Monday, 11 April 2022 | PNS | Dehradun
A joint team of Uttarakhand Special Task Force (STF) and Cyber Crime Police have arrested two gang members from Bihar for allegedly scamming a Dehradun resident of Rs nine lakh in the name of providing helicopter service to Vaishno Devi. The authorities have also recovered 18 debit cards, 14 Sim cards and 12 mobile phones from the accused. The officials informed that a Dalanwala resident, Nipun Sharda had lodged a complaint in the police station that some unknown people had scammed him of Rs nine lakh using a fake website www.pawanhansride.com while acting as representatives of an agency which provides helicopter service to Vaishno Devi through online registrations and payments. As per the police, the accused had given mobile numbers to the victim to deposit the said amount to digit wallets through digital payment apps which were associated with different bank accounts. The officials informed that the police recovered the details of these bank accounts through the mobile numbers given to the victim and found out that they belonged to the two accused Abhishek Aryan alias Pradeep Aryan and Ravi Kumar who belonged to Bihar. The officials said that they have recovered 14 Sim cards and 12 mobile phones from the accused that indicate that they were conducting such frauds across the country, probably acting as tourist agents. The police are investigating the accused and will also look into their criminal background. The STF officer Ankush Mishra said that one must avoid contacting random websites or phone numbers, especially those that include possible money transactions as that is how fraudsters scam those who are vulnerable to cyber frauds. He said that in this case too, the victim contacted a random website without verifying its credentials but the police were able to nab the culprits due to the complaint lodged swiftly by the victim. He appealed to the public to stay alert on making any kind of online payments and immediately contact the authorities if they become the victim of a cyber fraud.
