Police bust pan-India cybercrime racket, arrest four

According to police officials, investigations into the racket were initiated in August this year, after a senior executive with a private firm fell prey to the fraud. The victim had recently shifted from Surat to Mumbai and wished to sell off some of his furniture, for which he posted an ad on the OLX

Mumbai The north region cyber police have arrested four people who allegedly ran a pan-India cybercrime racket by cheating OLX users posing as potential buyers. The accused are suspected to be behind over 750 cases over the last one-and-a-half year.

Mumbai, India - January 02, 2023: The Mumbai Cyber Cell arrest four accused for allegedly running a pan-India cyber crime racket and cheating OLX users as buyers. The accused are suspected to be behind 750 cases over the last one-and-a-half year, in Mumbai, India, on Monday, January 02, 2023. (Photo by Vijay Bate/HT Photo) (HT PHOTO)

According to police officials, investigations into the racket were initiated in August this year, after a senior executive with a private firm fell prey to the fraud. The victim had recently shifted from Surat to Mumbai and wished to sell off some of his furniture, for which he posted an ad on the OLX. The accused contacted him and expressed willingness to buy it.

“The accused told him they were sending ₹9,000 as an advance in order to seal the deal. The victim said that was not necessary but they insisted and sent him a QR Code asking him to scan it. Unknown to him, it was a reverse QR Code, designed to receive rather than sending money, with the amount of ₹9,000 pre-loaded in it. The victim scanned the code and the amount was debited from his account,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber) Balsing Rajput.

Over the next two hours, while pretending to refund his money, the accused allegedly kept sending QR codes of increasing amounts, ultimately cleaning out ₹17.82 lakh from his account. The victim subsequently approached the police and an FIR was registered in the matter.

While investigating the case, the police found a total of 835 mobile numbers and 38 handsets linked to the bank accounts in which the money had gone. Further technical analysis showed that the same numbers and accounts had been used in commission of multiple offences, and after three months of investigation, the police zeroed in on the Bharatpur district in Rajasthan.

In an operation conducted over the last five days in coordination with the Rajasthan police, the cops arrested Sarvasukh Rujdar (37), Tulsiram Meena (25), Ajit Poswal (19) and Irsad Sardar (25), all natives of Bharatpur. The first three were arrested from their hometown, while Sardar was arrested from Uttar Pradesh.

Rajput said that there were four modules involved in the racket. The first module established initial contact with the targets as soon as they uploaded advertisements on OLX, convincing them to “sell” their furniture to them. The targets’ contact numbers would then be passed on to the second module, which would talk to them on the phone and send them the QR codes, fleecing them for every penny they had.

He added that the third module would be roaming around in localities having plenty of ATM kiosks, withdrawing the money in varying amounts even as it was coming in. The fourth module would set up bank accounts using forged documents and hand over their control to the second and third module.

“Prima facie, the gang seems to have been active for at least the last year and a half,” said Rajput.

“There are 10 FIRs and 13 applications received by the Mumbai police so far which correspond to this modus operandi or have links to the mobile numbers or bank accounts used by this gang. Further, the Telengana police have sent details of 577 cases registered with them in which this gang is suspected to have been involved, while there are 270 other complaints received in the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal from other parts of the country, which are also being examined,” said Rajput.

The accused were brought to Mumbai on Sunday and produced before a local court, which remanded them to police custody till January 4. The police have seized ₹two lakh in cash from the accused, besides nine mobile phones, four SIM cards and documents pertaining to various bank accounts, officers said.