New Delhi, Nov 22 (UNI) Delhi Police Crime Branch dismantled an interstate investment fraud syndicate by arresting four key members who allegedly duped victims across the country of more than Rs 10 crore through fake online trading platforms, an official said today.
According to the police, the action stems from an E-FIR which was registered on June 14 after a resident of the city reported losing Rs 49.35 lakh to a fraudulent website, ‘fxprovip.com’.
“The victim was first contacted through Facebook Messenger by a woman posing as ‘A’, who later shifted the conversation to WhatsApp and persuaded him to invest via a seemingly legitimate trading portal,” said Aditya Gautam, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime).
Following a digital surveillance and financial trail analysis, the officers from Cyber Cell got their hands on Atul Kumar (34), Varsha Sharma (35), Ajay Sharma (28), and R (54) on Thursday.
Amid the investigation into this case, the officer disclosed that the accused were part of a well-structured operation that relied heavily on “mule” bank accounts, accounts opened in the names of financially vulnerable individuals, for routing and withdrawing cheated funds.
Ajay, who is believed to be a major account provider in the syndicate, arranged multiple fraudulent bank accounts and supplied their credentials to co-conspirators.
“Atul and Varsha allegedly operated mule accounts that received Rs 3.69 lakh of the defrauded money, while R reportedly received Rs 300,008 in her account,” the officer said.
Police added that the implicated bank accounts had surfaced in more than 67 cybercrime complaints across Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and other states. Several of these cases also relate to ‘digital arrest’ scams.
Further investigation into this case is ongoing by the team, the DCP stated.
