Cyber crime police bust major network of cyber fraudsters who cheated people of Rs 854 crore

BENGALURU: The cyber crime police have cracked down a huge network of cyber fraudsters in Bengaluru and arrested six people who have cheated people of crores by sending online links through social media platforms.

The police ahve seized devices including computers, mobile phones, laptops, bank documents, credit and debit cards, POS machines, SIM cards, printers and cheque books from the accused. The police have also frozen Rs 5 crore in the accounts of the accused.

The gang had cheated people to the tune of Rs 854 crore across the country. Among the arrested is Manohar from Vidyaranyapura. As many as 17 cases have been registered in Bengaluru alone and during investigation, it came to light that 5,013 cases have been registered in many parts of the country.

The police said the accused were managing the accounts from Bengaluru while residing abroad. Key members of the Bengaluru-based gang including Manoj alias Jock, Phanindra, Vasanth, Srinivasa, Chakradar alias Chakri, and Somashekhar alias Uncle, were managing the bank accounts as per instructions given from abroad.

The online fraudsters used to send messages with job offers across India through WhatsApp and Telegram. There was a separate team to send messages and communicate with the public.

The faudesters used to start communicating with potential targets, offering part-time jobs, asking them to give star ratings for hotels and various commercial establishments for Google reviews. They would make the victims believe that if they do this, they will be given money, and then they add them to a Telegram group. Then the accused would motivate them to invest in cryptocurrency in that Telegram group.

They would ask the victims to invest Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000 and would give would give daily returns ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 to gain trust. They would then persuade individuals invest in lakhs and crores of rupees.

The money thus invested was credited to current accounts in various banks in Bengaluru and later transferred to foreign bank accounts. Later, the gang that was managing the bank accounts was being paid through cryptocurrency. The foreign gang used to invest this money in various foreign companies.