Noida fraudster who duped 14 lakh e-commerce customers nabbed

Nandan Rao Patel, a 23-year-old MBA student, was arrested for successfully duping 14 lakh e-commerce customers with the help from the employees of retail companies, at around 8 pm on Saturday from his office in Noida Sector 142.

Police said that the accused allegedly sold the data of the customers to various sham call centres, who later used them to cheat people. The police have also recovered the data from his laptop. 

The STF officers said that they were flooded with complaints not only from online shoppers but also from a bank, which reported data theft. The bank informed the police that its customers were being cheated by fake call centres on the pretext of lucky draw contests, GST or income tax registration.

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A cyber expert, Patel is originally from Bihar and is currently in the final year of MBA in Amity University, as reported by the police. The police have recovered two mobile phones and a laptop containing data of around 14 lakh customers of various online shopping companies.  

Vishal Vikram Singh, additional SP (STF) said that the accused revealed to them that he is a director of a digital marketing company. He said that he bought data from two employees of an e-commerce site at Rs 2-3 per customer and thereon sold it to fake call centres in Delhi NCR, Bihar, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Punjab at Rs. 5-6 per customer. 

An FIR has been registered against Patel under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating), 406 (punishment for Criminal breach of trust), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document).

Such cases are on the rise in Delhi-Noida region, just last month in New Delhi, a fraudster faked e-commerce website where the man posted fake customer care numbers and duped user of Rs. 52,000. The customers who sought refund were trapped into sharing confidential details by the accused who immediately emptied the accounts.

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(With PTI inputs)