Mumbai: A 35-year-old grocery trader from Nagpur was recently induced to transfer Rs 26 lakh in nearly 60 different beneficiary bank accounts in seven months under the pretext of returns amounting to crores of rupees through bogus online gaming and betting platforms.
In January this year, the man received a WhatsApp message about online betting platforms for cricket, tennis, football, and 150-plus types of casino, horse race, and binary market-related online games. The message also contained links to six different betting and gaming platforms on which he could register, create his profile, and start playing online betting games.
He received such messages and calls from over a dozen different WhatsApp numbers used by the scammers from January to July 26, the police said. The complainant told the police that he even took a loan to play online games, but couldn’t earn any profits. When he finally did, he informed his friends, who said that scammers deliberately manipulate settings of such gaming and betting platforms, wherein they get benefits, and those placing bets end up losing.
