Bhubaneswar: Odisha STF on Saturday arrested another accused in the OTP sharing scam wherein the accused shared OTP with Pakistani intelligence operatives. Earlier four accused were arrested in this case on May 14 and June 8.
The arrested accused has been identified as Pritam Kar (31), a resident of Bhurunga village under Bari Ramchandrapur police limits in Jajpur district.
Pritam and his associates were engaged in the illegal business of OTP sharing, mule accounts/pre-activated digital wallets selling to cyber criminals including PIO/ISI agents since 2017.
He was in direct touch with at least two PIO/ISI agents and had physically met them multiple times in other states and had recently received Rs 1.5 lakh for selling OTP/ Mule accounts/ digital wallets. It is also learned that the SIM and debit card used by the accused in last year’s Mangalore Auto blast on November 19, 2022, was provided by Pritam Kar.
According to the STF, the accused has sold thousands of pre-activated SIM cards, OTPs, and mule accounts/digital wallets to date. He used to charge up to Rs 1,000 per SIM and up to Rs 30,000 per account for mule accounts/ digital wallets.
Pritam used to sell mule accounts/ digital wallets of India Post Payment Bank (IPPB), FiNO care, HDFC, Axis, Yes Bank, ICICI, Airtel Payment Bank, Paytm Bank, etc. He and his associate used to contact the customers through various WhatsApp groups, Facebook Messenger groups, and Telegram groups. He used to make WhatsApp voice calls/chats to many foreign numbers too.
Pritam was the admin of the Whatsapp group named “All saving AC available” having 113 members. He is also a member of numerous such groups like Online-Offline Seller OTP shop-6, All OTP available, OTP Sell/ Buy Adda, OTC KYC deals, Online Project Daily, Indian top OTP group, KYC Compliance, Best OTP group, and KYC Zone Etc.
The STF informed that further investigation into the case (No.10/2023) is underway.
