Mumbai: The D B Marg police arrested a 26-year-old science graduate, S K Mandal, from West Bengal for allegedly preparing and selling APK files to fraudsters who used them to cheat gullible victims.“We have arrested Mandal from West Bengal. He is originally from Jharkhand. The Android Application Package (APK) files prepared by the accused were involved in crimes in the city and there are 512 complaints on helpline number 1930/ NCCRP against these files. Mandal used to sell APK files for Rs 15,000 each. We are examining his laptop and mobile phone,” said zonal DCP Ragasudha R.Mandal was arrested by the police which were probing a cyber cheating case of Rs 70,500 where the complainant was duped after she clicked a fake Mahanagar Gas Ltd APK file.Mandal allegedly sold 91 files to various cyber cheat gangs.There are 2,993 complaints registered against these APK files on the national cybercrime reporting portal (NCCRP). In these cases, around Rs 63.7 crore was siphoned off from victims’ accounts.Ragasudha said, “We have seized 10 mobile phones, one laptop, seven SIM cards, four credit/debit cards, 967 APK files and found the database of banking information of 37,200 individuals from the accused. During the probe, we found that 91 APK files created by the arrested accused were sold to other accused. Through these sold APK files, a total of 2,993 (including 512 in Maharashtra especially Mumbai), the general public were cheated of Rs 63.69 crore.” Police said that had the accused sold all his files, the fraudsters could have cheated the public of hundreds of crores.Police said Mandal would sell the APK files through a social media channel. The buyers would contact him and he would develop and send the APK files as per their demand and receive money mostly in cash.The fraudsters, who contact a victim, generally send an APK file with different names of companies or institutions. They ask to update the electricity bill, gas connection and RTO challan, and threaten disconnection or action if not done. They send an APK file to the victim through WhatsApp. Once a victim opens an APK file and keys in some details, the fraudsters take control of their mobile phone and siphon off money from their account.
