Noida, April 7 Noida Cyber Crime Police arrested four alleged cyber fraudsters in Sector 76 on Tuesday for duping foreign nationals by posing as "tech support" providers, an officer said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber Crime) Shavya Goyal said the accused posed as technical support agents and threatened their targets with claims of hacking and data theft in order to extort money.
The police identified the four as Mohd Bilal, 26, Dev Kapahi, 25, and Kushagra Nimbekar, 24, all residents of Delhi, and Abhishek Mukheja, 27, a resident of Rajasthan's Alwar district.
"They ran paid advertisements on the internet and social media platforms under the guise of 'Tech Support', displaying toll-free numbers for foreign nationals to call," Goyal said.
She said that when people contacted them, the accused falsely claimed that their computers had been hacked and needed urgent technical intervention.
"The accused… used screen-sharing applications to access the victims' devices. They then extracted sensitive banking details," she said.
In a novel move to intensify fear, the accused would deliberately turn the victims' computer screens black to simulate a hacking incident.
"They used this tactic to terrify the victims and gain their trust before checking the balance in their bank accounts," Goyal said.
The officer said the accused extorted amounts ranging from USD 350 to USD 2,000 if the victim had limited funds. In cases involving higher balances, they escalated the matter to senior members of the racket connected through the same calling software.
"The money obtained through fraudulent means was collected via cryptocurrency and later distributed among the accused," the officer said.
Authorities recovered laptops, mobile phones and other electronic devices used in the fraud from their possession.