BHOPAL: Bhopal police have arrested four persons who were running a cyber fraud racket – on the lines of web series Jamtara- in Niwari district on Monday.
On a module similar to Jamtara, four persons in Astari village, adjoining Uttar Pradesh, were duping people of their hard-earned money making lucrative offers. The gang was operating in the area for the last 10 years.
The SP (South) Sai Krishna Thota informed that a complaint was filed by Parvez Khan in Sukhi Sevnia police station. The complainant had said that he was lured by Rs 3.90 lakh lottery prize. Khan was asked to deposit Rs 39,000 in two different accounts, to get the prize money. Khan deposited the amount, but never received the lottery amount. The accused even stopped receiving his calls.
The Bhopal police formed a team and after tracking the mobile numbers conducted searches in the village. It took four days to arrest the accused – identified as Vinod Ahirwar, Ankit Ahirwar, Arvind Prajapati and Raghvendra Yadav.
All these fraudsters are 10 or 12 pass and have no technical expertise. The police have seized four mobile phones, an ATM card, one micro ATM machine, one thumb impression machine from the accused. The fraudsters, who were active in the area for the last 10 years, would make lucrative offers like lottery, lucky draw, installing towers and other schemes to trick the people. The young crooks were living a lavish life, they owned a house, four wheelers, two wheelers and luxury items.
The police are yet to get the bank account details and other information that would help them to ascertain the volume of the amount they accumulated through illegal means.
Four tricksters had different roles to play
In the web series ‘Jamtara’, the youths are shown running lucrative phishing operations and duping innocent people in Jamtara city in Jharkhand. Here in Niwari, the fraudsters in a style similar to Jamtara racket were duping many people who were interested in making a fast buck. Each member of the gang had a specific role to play. Vinod used to call the people and trap them making lucrative offers. Ankit used to withdraw amount from the ATM.
Arvind ran a cyber kiosk and would transfer the amount deposited by investors. He also used to arrange for SIMs for calling.
Raghvendra, who runs a grain shop in adjoining UP, used to provide all financial help, managed the funds and also called up people.