Less than a month after a Delhi man got a call from a ‘State Bank of India representative’, clicked a WhatsApp link, downloaded a malicious file, and lost Rs 10.64 lakh to a cyber scam, the police on Wednesday arrested two men in connection with the case.The police identified the accused as Shankar Dan, 27, and Pradeep Kumar Dan, 26, both residents of Dhanbad in Jharkhand.According to the police, on June 30, the complainant received a phone call from a man posing as an SBI representative. The caller informed him about a bounced cheque and sent a link via WhatsApp, claiming it contained the cheque image. Upon clicking the link and installing an APK file, the complainant found nothing as described, the police said.Suspecting something amiss, he immediately disconnected the call, deleted the file, and switched off his phone. However, upon restarting the device, he began receiving alerts for unauthorised financial activity, the police said. Two fixed deposits—worth Rs 5.62 lakh and Rs 4.54 lakh—had been prematurely closed, and Rs 48,600 had been debited to Google Ads from the complainant’s Bandhan Bank account.An FIR under sections 318(4) (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 319(2) (cheating by personation), and 340 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) was registered.“The funds were subsequently utilised for payments towards an Axis Bank credit card and Google ADS services. On the basis of technical analysis and data obtained from BillDesk, it was found that a particular mobile number and device were active in the area of Dhanbad, Jharkhand. Further analysis confirmed that the alleged calling number was also operational in the same area,” Amit Goel, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), South West, said.The OTPs necessary for these transactions were silently diverted to an alternate number through unauthorised access enabled by the malicious app, the police said.Story continues below this adAfter days of search, Shankar was arrested from Dhanbad, the police said, adding that he allegedly had four mobile phones, including the one used to contact the victim. Based on his disclosures and technical leads, the police arrested his associate, Pradeep, from Tarapith in West Bengal’s Birbhum district. Pradeep was allegedly in possession of the device used to carry out financial transactions through BillDesk, the police said.Raids were also conducted in Bokaro, Ranchi, and other parts of Jharkhand before the arrest, the police added.“During sustained interrogation, Shankar confessed that he used Amazon Pay to identify potential victims. He randomly entered mobile numbers into the Amazon Pay app, which revealed the bank associated with each number. Based on this information, he contacted the victims, impersonating a bank representative or manager. He would inform the victims about fabricated issues such as KYC updates, credit/debit card problems, or cheque bounces,” said DCP Goel.According to the police, Shankar handled calling and targeting victims while Pradeep operated the BillDesk platform to transfer the stolen funds to prearranged credit cards. These cards were either issued in fictitious names or sourced through accomplices, the police said. The stolen money was then withdrawn through third-party apps like CRED and MobiKwik or used to purchase gift cards and digital services.Story continues below this adAccording to the police, Shankar allegedly earned about Rs 5 lakh from this operation and received 50 per cent of the stolen amount. Pradeep allegedly admitted to receiving a 20 per cent share.The accused allegedly confessed that the SIM cards used were procured from the Jamtara region, a hotspot infamous for cybercrime in India, and the APK files were sourced from Telegram and WhatsApp channels specialising in digital fraud tools, the police said.The police said the accused operated from forested and low-network areas near their village to evade being tracked. Shankar is previously involved in two cybercrime cases and a murder case, while Pradeep is involved in a murder case, the police said.