New Delhi, Jul 11 (PTI) A gang of five men who posed as bank officials was arrested for allegedly cheating people on the pretext of increasing credit card limit, police said on Monday.

Police said 31 fake sim cards and 19 mobile phones used to commit the crime has been recovered from them along with other articles.

Also Read | Kaali Poster Row: Delhi Court Summons Filmmaker Leena Manimekalai.

Accused identified as Vijay Kumar Sharma (42), Amit Sengar (37), Moolchand Mishra (48), Sanjeev Kumar (43) and Subham (27) have earned lakhs by cheating hundreds of people, police said.

Police said the matter came to light in May when a resident of Prem Nagar filed a complaint at NCRP portal alleging he received a telephonic call from a person who informed the complainant that he is calling from SBI Bank and asked for his credit card number. The accused caller assured him to increase his credit card limit from 1.25 lakh to five lakh.

Also Read | Assam: Fraudsters Seek Money in Name of Minister Bimal Bora, FIR Lodged.

According to police, the complainant did not suspect any foul play as the fraudster had told his credit card number. Meanwhile, the complainant received an OTP on his mobile phone. The accused then informed him that credit card's limit has been increased and OTP number is to be filled to complete the process

As soon as the complainant told the OTP to the cheat, a fraud transaction of Rs 89,120 was done from his SBI credit card and five Android mobile phones were purchased from Flipkart by using that cheated amount, police added.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Rohini) Pranav Tayal said, "As per investigation conducted so far 25 complaints on NCRP portal, have been linked with the offence. From the investigation conducted so far, it is transpired that the accused persons have cheated hundreds of victims with similar modus operandi."

On the basis of technical analysis, money trail and Flipkart's delivery details, the culprits were identified. Subsequently, simultaneous raids were conducted at the hideouts of accused persons and five accused persons were arrested, he said.

"During interrogation, the gang members disclosed that they purchased Credit Cards' data on the WhatsApp group by contacting their co-accused Raj who is presently absconding. Then, they arranged fake SIM cards to contact the victims and introduce themselves as bank officials and followed their modus operandi which they have been doing it for past two-three years," the DCP said. PTI AMP

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)