12 imposters held for duping public through fake calls, websites: Delhi Police

The Delhi Police said seven people who impersonated as representatives of HT Media's job website Shine duped the public by of their hard earned money.

The Delhi Police Cyber Crime Unit (IFSO) has busted three gangs of imposters who used to dupe the victims by offering franchisees or dealerships in the name of companies including Hindustan Times' job website Shine, Shoppers Stop, Dabur India and Indiamart.

In a statement, the Delhi Police said the IFSO Special Cell arrested 12 people from across Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Varanasi and Bihar. Three laptops, 20 mobile phones, SIM cards, ATM cards and cheque books have been recovered from the accused.

The ten accused allegedly duped public by impersonating as representatives of top companies. (Delhi Police)

DCP (IFSO) Special Cell Prashant Gautam said further raids are being carried out to identify and arrest the accused in connection with the cases related to other firms too.

Recently, the Delhi high court had referred to the Delhi Police's IFSO unit for several matters of trademark and copyright violations pertaining to leading firms including Shine, Shoppers Stop, Dabur India and Indiamart in which the imposters had created fake profiles of these companies and used to dupe the victims by using fake website and email IDs created in the name of these firms.

HT Media alleged some unknown persons had created similar and confusing website names like www.learningshine.com, www.shine02.com, www.webshinejob.com, www.shinerecruiter.com, www.shinecomplaints.com,www.resume-shine.com and email ids hr.shinerecruiter2@gmail.com and others containing domain name of the company (www.shine.com). They used to call victims on behalf of the company and cheated the public by receiving their hard earned money, the Delhi Police said in a statement.

During the investigation, the team gathered inputs on the alleged websites, fake email IDs and scrutinised it. The team identified the seven suspects from across Delhi and Bihar.

In another case, retail chain Shoppers Stop Ltd alleged that unknown individuals were collecting money from victims by impersonating themselves as company representatives. The accused created a fake website www.shopperstop.co.in and were duping the people. Acting on an FIR, the investigating team arrested one Priyansh Yadav from Varanasi.

In another case, Dabur India had also alleged that fake websites like www.daburdistributor.com, www.dapurfranchisee.in & https://daburdistributorships.in were being used to dupe people by promising them Dabur India's distributorship. The Delhi Police arrested two people named Kusum and Neelam from the capital.

On the other hand, two people from Mumbai were apprehended on the basis of FIR registered by Indiamart alleging the accused approached people through fake calls, SMS and WhatsApp messages and claimed to offer financial services by the company.

The Delhi Police said further raids are being carried out to identify and arrest the accused in connection with the cases related to other firms too. HT Media's matter was represented before the Cyber Prevention Awareness Detection (CYPAD) of the Delhi Police by the Shine legal team along with Saurabh Kumar, managing partner, SK Attorney, Delhi.