FPJ Cyber Secure: 1 Held For Gift Card Fraud, Bank Account With ₹1.36 Crore Frozen

The Oshiwara police have arrested a person from Worli for allegedly duping several people of a total of ₹1.36 crore under the guise of Amazon gift vouchers. The suspect, Riyaz Ahmad, 22, originally from Assam, is allegedly linked to an international racket.

It all began with a businessman from Jogeshwari East, Ismail Shaikh, 30, receiving a message on August 30, purportedly from Amazon, offering a ₹150 gift voucher with a shared link. On clicking the link, a telegram chat was initiated with one Vairag Senthil, who messaged that ₹150 had been credited to Shaikh’s Paytm account. 

Fraudster asked Shaikh to invest in Bitcoins

Subsequently, the fraudster asked Shaikh to invest in Bitcoins and promised doubled returns by providing a link. On clicking it, Shaikh was asked to pay ₹5,000 for a task, which he paid and received ₹6,500 in return. However, the fraudster continued to offer tasks amounting to ₹6.75 lakh without providing any returns.

On Shaikh's complaint, the Oshiwara police acted swiftly and identified the accused’s account number and bank, freezing it and seizing ₹1.36 crore. The accused was arrested from his residence in Worli. The police also seized a laptop, two mobiles, three debit cards, three cheque books, a passbook, an Aadhaar card and a PAN card. 

Senior police inspector Mohan Patil warned citizens against clicking on dubious links. He said, “We froze the accused’s bank account and recovered money that probably belongs to other victims who have not come forward to register complaints.” Patil executed the operation under cyber senior police inspector Digamber Kurkute.