Punjab Shocker: Driver Takes Cyber Fraud Lessons From YouTube, Dupes NRI of Rs 28 Lakh

Ludhiana: A 41-year-old driver from Ludhiana duped an NRI of Rs 28 lakhs using cuber fraud hacks which he learnt from YouTube. As per media reports, the accused has been identified as Palwinder Singh.

Meanwhile, the victim was identified as Iqbal Singh Sandhu, a Canadian national from Ludhiana who would call Palwinder to drive his car.

Palwinder used to work as a taxi driver on a regular basis.

On Nov 13, Iqbal filed a complaint at a cyber station alleging that Rs 28 lakhs had been used from his 3 accounts between May 12 and Oct 31.

Furthermore, after the initial probe, a senior official at the cyber station said that the police probe found that on May 11 when Iqbal had flown to Canada, Palwinder dropped him at the airport. However, the two had stopped for a small tea break, when the driver replaced the NRI's sim card which he did not notice as he had stitched to an international SIM soon after boarding the flight

"Palwinder was aware of the password to Iqbal’s email ID and now had access to his mobile number also through the SIM card. He told the police that he had been watching YouTube videos for several months to learn how to transfer money from someone’s bank account. He had also applied for new debit cards in Iqbal’s name by making an online request and used UPI to make various transactions from Iqbal’s account," the official said.

According to the police, Palwinder would make payments at fuel stations by using newly issued debit cards and used to get cash from them. He was later caught and the police as of now has recovered Rs 13.58 lakh from the accused, besides passbooks, chequebooks and debit cards.

The senior official said that Palwinder was using this money to construct a new house in his village.