'Money Heist' inspired cyber thugs held for conning Noida businessman

The duo hacked the email id of the complainant’s company which was linked with its bank account, used a virtual private network, dark web, SIM cards bought on forged IDs, and used a technique to bypass the OTP sent on a registered mobile number for the fraud, Yadav said.

"Once the accused took over control of the bank account, they transferred Rs one crore into four different bank accounts, which were also made on forged identities. The funds were then converted into cryptocurrencies using an e-wallet on USDT," the police officer said.

She said Chaturvedi and Jain were taken into custody, they confessed to committing the crime and revealed that they were inspired by a "Money Heist", a popular crime drama web series.

"The criminals joined more than 15 groups on WhatsApp and Telegram by naming themselves after the characters of the web series. Fake sim cards, and international mobile numbers were used with names from the show. Chaturvedi went by the name 'Professor' while Jain was named 'Rio' on the virtual platforms," Yadav added.

She said the technical resources used in the May incident have been seized and the FIR was lodged under the Indian Penal Code section 420 (cheating), and under provisions of the Information Technology Act.

A car, a laptop, 11 mobile phones, 25 sim cards, 23 debit cards, among other items have been seized from the duo’s possession. Superintendent of Police, UP Cyber Crime, Triveni Singh announced a reward of Rs 25,000 to the police team which has cracked the case, officials said.