Uttar Pradesh Cyber Crime police have apprehended two individuals who drew inspiration from the TV series ‘Money Heist’ to orchestrate a scam that cheated a Noida businessman out of *1 crore. The accused, using aliases ‘Professor’ and ‘Rio’ from the series, managed to gain unauthorized access to the businessman’s company email account, subsequently hacking into the linked bank account.
Employing a sophisticated array of tactics, the duo utilized a virtual private network, the dark web, and acquired SIM cards under forged identities. They ingeniously bypassed the One-Time Password (OTP) security measure by exploiting a technique. With control over the victim’s bank account, the criminals siphoned *1 crore into four distinct bank accounts, all of which were set up under counterfeit identities.
To obscure their tracks further, the funds were converted into cryptocurrencies using a USDT e-wallet. The pair infiltrated various WhatsApp and Telegram groups, adopting the monikers of ‘Professor’ and ‘Rio’, characters from the popular web series. They employed fake SIM cards alongside international mobile numbers associated with these fictional names.
During the arrest, the police seized a car, a laptop, 11 mobile phones, 25 SIM cards, and 23 debit cards from the possession of the criminals. Superintendent of Police, Triveni Singh, announced a reward for the investigative team that cracked the case. The culprits, identified as Ritesh Chaturvedi (Amit Singh) and Rishabh Jain (Prince Thakur), openly confessed to their involvement, attributing their actions to the influence of “Money Heist.”
In their fraudulent endeavor, the criminals capitalized on their unauthorized access to the victim’s bank account, diverting the defrauded amount into four different bank accounts, all created under false identities. The arrest of these individuals underscores the need for heightened vigilance against cybercrime and emphasizes the potential impact of fictional narratives on real-world actions.
