Ritika
New DelhiIn a bizarre case of cyber fraud, a group of fraudsters allegedly obtained PAN details of several Bollywood actors and cricketers from their GST Identification Numbers i.e. GSTINs (which are available online) and linked them to Pune-based fintech startup ‘One Card’. Get a credit card made in your name.
Shahdara Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Rohit Meena said that the fraudsters used the names and details of Abhishek Bachchan, Shilpa Shetty, Madhuri Dixit, Emraan Hashmi and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Meena told ‘PTI-Bhasha’, “The investigation of the case is going on, so we cannot comment further on it.” The fraud was detected by the company later, but before that the fraudsters had made purchases of products worth Rs 21.32 lakh using some of these cards. Following this, the company immediately informed the Delhi Police, who swung into action and arrested five people in the matter.
Delhi Police sources said that the five accused have been identified as Puneet, Mohd Asif, Sunil Kumar, Pankaj Mishra and Vishwa Bhaskar Sharma. They worked together to defraud the company in a very unusual way. A source said, “When the accused were questioned after their arrest, they told how the fraud was carried out. The accused used the GST details of celebrities on Google. They knew that the first two digits of GSTIN are the state code and the last 10 digits are the PAN number.”
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“The date of birth of these celebrities was also available on Google… By getting the PAN number and date of birth, they got the necessary PAN details,” said the source. He fraudulently got the PAN card re-generated and affixed his photograph on it, so that during video verification his face would match with the photograph available on the PAN/Aadhaar card.”
For example, Abhishek Bachchan’s PAN card had his PAN number and date of birth, but had the photograph of one of the accused, the source said. He said the investigation in the matter is on and it is suspected that the accused may have adopted the same modus operandi to obtain credit cards from other banks and financial institutions as well.
“FPL Technologies Pvt Ltd issues ‘One Card’, which is a contactless credit card,” the Pune-based company said in its police complaint. Along with this, online services are also provided through One Card and One Score app, so that customers can use it for online transactions or purchases on any website or app. The company alleged that these fraudsters had approached the company through the app by uploading details such as PAN and Aadhaar numbers to get credit cards issued in their names.
