Mumbai: 3 held for duping people on pretext of giving VIP phone numbers

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Mumbai police on Thursday arrested three persons from the city for allegedly cheating people on the promise of providing VIP mobile phone numbers of leading telecom companies to them, an official said.

The North region cyber police station arrested the trio, identified as Santosh Gupta, Presit Narvekar and Zen Ahmed Khan, he said. "The accused used to contact people through WhatsApp and e-mail and assure them that they will get VIP phone numbers. They would charge lakhs of rupees in exchange," the police official said.

Recently, one of the accused had contacted a man on his WhatsApp and told him that he can get VIP mobile phone numbers. The victim fell into his trap and paid Rs three lakh in several instalments, he added. When the victim failed to get the numbers despite the assurance, he approached the Samata Nagar police station and lodged a complaint.

On the basis of the complaint, the cyber department traced that the person, who had called from Nagpada locality in south Mumbai. The police caught one of the accused and during the search of his house, recovered a country-made pistol, nine live bullets, 10 SIM cards, six mobile phones and eight ATM cards, police said.

Assistant Police Inspector Sanjay Pawar of North region cyber police station has urged people not to fall victims to those promising special phone numbers.

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