A college student, TMG Shaikh from Malad (West), 20 years old, has recently received a notice from the Income Tax Department for the transactions done to her account of around 35 crores over the past eight months. After conducting an investigation, two men have been arrested for fraudulently using his documents and opening fake accounts in her name. The student claims the notice as fraudulent.

The student approached the Malvani police station after getting a tax notice from the income tax department. She said she had nothing to do with the transactions or the bank accounts. A case came on Monday, and a new type of scam was revealed during the investigation. This scam covers job applicants, and their Aadhar and PAN card details are collected to open new bank accounts. Money is restored into these bank accounts collected through cyber crimes.

The names of the two accused individuals who are being arrested are Abhishek Pandey (21) from Borivli and Akash Vishwakarma (22) from Kandivli.

From the Malvani police station, one of the officer said, “The two targeted job-seekers, obtaining their Aadhaar and PAN card details, promising employment. These documents were misused to open bank accounts for money obtained through cyber scams.”

A team of senior inspectors, Shailendra Nagarkar, ACP Neeta Padvi, inspector Jeevan Bhatkule, sub-inspectors Digamber Kurkute, Amar Shinde and staff directed by DCP Anand Bhoite, arrested those two scammers. During the investigation, police grabbed 204 SIM cards, 115 passbooks, 271 debit and credit cards, besides cash, a laptop and other equipment used for performing cyber crimes.

The investigation was performed to arrest two individuals whose work was to direct those fraudulent accounts and debit money from accounts for other gang members. They were paid commission for doing this, said Sub-inspector Kurkute.

This investigation has disclosed a new scam, where job applicants are targeted, their documents are collected and misused to open fraudulent accounts for performing illegal transactions.

A police officer said that several people have been caught in this scam, where their documents are being misused. The police are collecting information about the mastermind of the gang. They are trying to collect information from the arrested men.