Cyber criminals use PAN details of M S Dhoni, Abhishek Bachchan, Shilpa Shetty for credit card fraud, 5 arrested
In a bizarre case of cyber fraud, a group of fraudsters allegedly procured PAN details of several Bollywood actors and cricketers from their GST Identification Numbers which are available online, and got credit cards issued in their names from Pune-based fintech startup 'One Card'.
Some of the celebrities whose names and details were used by the fraudsters are Abhishek Bachchan, Shilpa Shetty, Madhuri Dixit, Emraan Hashmi and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) of Shahadra Rohit Meena said.
"Since investigation into the matter is underway, we cannot comment further on it," Meena told PTI.
The company got wind of the fraud subsequently but not before the fraudsters used some of these cards to purchase products worth ₹21.32 lakh. It immediately alerted the Delhi Police which swung into action and arrested five of them.
The five accused, identified as Puneet, Mohd Asif, Sunil Kumar, Pankaj Mishar and Vishwa Bhaskar Sharma, acted in close coordination to defraud the company in a very unusual manner, Delhi Police sources said.
"After arrest, when they were interrogated, they disclosed their unique modus operandi. They used to get GST details of these celebrities from Google. They were very well aware that the first two digits of GSTIN are state code and the next 10 digits are PAN number,” one of the sources said.
The source added, "Since the celebrities date of birth are available on Google, these two -- PAN and date of birth -- complete the PAN details. They got the PAN cards remade fraudulently putting their own pictures on it so that during video verification, their looks match with the photo available on PAN/Aadhaar card."
For instance, the PAN card of Abhishek Bachchan had his PAN and date
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