E-Paper
Cyber fraud case: Arrest of WB man exposes ₹3,000 cr online job racket
Police said, the entire money collected through cyber fraud was transferred to different countries like China, Malaysia and Philippines in the form of crypto-currency/virtual currency.
The arrest of a man on Wednesday from West Bengal, in connection with a Bareilly cyber fraud case, has exposed a ₹3,000 crore pan-India online job racket, said state cyber crime wing officials here.
They said the entire money collected through cyber fraud was transferred to different countries like China, Malaysia and Philippines in the form of crypto-currency/virtual currency.
Superintendent of police (SP), cyber crime headquarters in Lucknow, Triveni Singh said the accused was identified as Manzurul Islam of West Bengal and he was arrested in connection with a fraud of ₹2.1 lakh committed with a woman in Bareilly in October 2021.
Singh said the victim received a message of online part-time job and was directed to a WhatsApp number and, thereafter, to an app when she clicked on a given link.
He said the woman was then asked to click on a link and register herself for the job for a fee of ₹100 only. He further said the woman was then offered ₹200 in return on investing ₹100 and an e-wallet was created. The woman, over a period of some days, continued to invest money and eventually discovered that she had been cheated of over ₹2 lakh.
The SP said the fraudsters used to send bulk messages on mobile numbers and several lakh people across India have fallen prey to this fraud.
He said investigation revealed that this money was transferred to three different UPI IDs and the amount is over ₹3,000 crore. He said the entire amount was converted into crypto currency by creating its wallets. In addition, the money was also transferred utilising different trusts, firms and companies, he added.
“So far investigation have revealed that 256 wallets of different crypto currencies have been used to transfer over ₹1,413 crore, which include six wallets of India, while other wallets were created in China, Malaysia and Philippines. Besides, the bank accounts of as many as 46 companies, trusts and firms have been used to transfer over ₹1,500 crore. Twelve of these are shell companies,” he explained.
“Investigation against the directors of the companies and firms is on,” he said.
The SP said one Jaidev Dey was arrested earlier in a similar cyber fraud for transferring over ₹200 crore through an NGO’s account. He said Dey was presently lodged in a jail in Thane, Maharashtra and he would be interrogated in the case.
