Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Bhopal Cyber Crime Branch police on Wednesday busted a gang of cyber fraudsters who duped people promising high profits through online jobs and tasks.
Accused arrested from different cities across the states include those selling mule bank accounts and one who used the accounts to purchase crypto currency, cyber crime officials said.
The accused include an LLB student and a graduate, while other two rented bank accounts to be used for the fraud.
ACP (cyber crime) Sujeet Tiwari said Arun Prakash Chaudhary approached the cell in October, 2024 stating that he lost Rs 16.70 lakh to some people who contacted him through telegram channel promising hefty profits through online jobs.
Cyber Crime team under sub inspector Ankit Nayak and ASI Chinna Rao launched investigations and through the bank accounts used in the fraud identified four members of the gang and arrested them.
The accused were identified as Kuldeep Meghwal (20) of Mandsaur, Lal Singh (31) and Nitesh Chauhan (26) of Ujjain, Rohit Jaiswal (22) of Dewas district. Nitesh Chauhan, a graduate used to act as agent and opened bank accounts of people of rural areas in return for offering commission.
Kuldeep and Lal Singh, both illiterate, rented out their bank accounts on Nitesh’s behest. Rohit Jaiswal was directly in contact with the kingpin of the online fraud racket.
An LLB student Rohit is tech-savvy and used to purchase crypto currency using the cash duped from bank customers. The crypto currency was transferred to different wallet addresses. Investigations are underway to identify and arrest other members of the gang, cyber crime officials said.
People were lured into making investment
The gang members used to lure bank customers and added them to a telegram channel through a link. Link of a fake website was then sent through the channel and fake demat accounts of people were opened. The victims were promised hefty profits in online jobs and were first asked to make some investment in their accounts.
They were given online tasks but were barred from withdrawing their cash on pretext that their credit score was poor. The victims were asked to deposit more cash in their account to raise the withdrawal credit score. Once the victims deposited the amount, the conmen would block them and make away with their entire amount.
