Odisha STF arrests youth for providing SIM, debit card to Mangaluru blast case accused
The Odisha Crime Branch STF has apprehended one more suspect in the OTP-sharing scam, in which four people were previously arrested for allegedly sharing OTPs with operatives of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
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Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Crime Branch STF has apprehended one more suspect in the OTP-sharing scam, in which four people were previously arrested for allegedly sharing OTPs with operatives of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
The accused, identified as Pritam Kar of the Jajpur district's Bari Ramchandrapur area, was apprehended on Saturday.
Pritam and his associates, according to an official release, have been doing this illegal business of OTP sharing, mule accounts/pre-activated digital wallets selling to cyber criminals including PIO/ISI agents since 2017.
The accused had direct contact with at least two PIO/ISI agents and had met them physically multiple times in other states. He had recently received Rs 1.5 lakh for selling OTP/mule accounts/digital wallets.
Pritam also provided the SIM and debit card used by the accused in last year's Mangalore Auto blast (terror act). To date, he has sold thousands of pre-activated SIM cards, OTPs, and mule accounts/digital wallets.
He used to charge up to Rs 1000 per SIM and up to Rs 30,000 per mule account/digital wallet account. He used to sell mule accounts/digital wallets from India Post Payment Bank (IPPB), FiNO Care, HDFC, Axis, Yes Bank, ICICI, Airtel Payment Bank, Paytm Bank, and other financial institutions.
He and his colleague used to communicate with customers via various WhatsApp groups, Facebook messenger groups, and Telegram groups. He also used to make WhatsApp voice calls/chats to a lot of foreign numbers. According to the report, he was the admin of the Whatsapp group "All saving AC available" with 113 members.
He is also a member of several groups, including Online-Offline Seller, OTP shop-6, All OTP available, OTP Sell/Buy Adda, OTC KYC deals, Online Project daily, Indian top OTP group, KYC Compliance, Best OTP group, KYC Zone, and others. The investigation into this case is continuing, according to the release.
