GB Nagar police arrest two Chinese nationals for online fraud

The alleged fraudsters used to send video links to their victims, asking them to like the video and promising ₹40 for each like. Under the scheme, the miscreants asked the victims to deposit more money in different bank accounts to become a ‘gold member’ of the scheme

In a joint operation, the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (UP-STF) and Gautam Budh Nagar police on Sunday arrested two Chinese nationals for allegedly duping hundreds of Indians on the pretext of liking videos in exchange of money.

GB Nagar police arrest two Chinese nationals for online fraud

The alleged fraudsters used to send video links to their victims, asking them to like the video and promising ₹40 for each like. Under the scheme, the miscreants asked the victims to deposit more money in different bank accounts to become a ‘gold member’ of the scheme.

The suspects have been identified as Feng Chenjin, a resident of Ganzhou in Jiangxi province and Huang Kuan, a resident of Guangxi in China. They were arrested from a hotel in the Knowledge Park area of Greater Noida, police said, adding that Feng can speak English while Huang only knows Mandarin.

“Over the last few months, the cyber crime portal of Uttar Pradesh Police had been receiving numerous complaints about online fraud being committed by unidentified persons with the help of ‘Gooro Media’ mobile application. After preliminary investigation, the Noida unit of STF was directed to probe the case. We spoke to the complainants and found that some unidentified people approached them by saying that they are from a multinational company based in the United States and have a scheme through which their money can be doubled,” said a police officer.

The alleged fraudsters told the victims to deposit ₹1,000 as member fee to join the scheme through the mobile application. Through the mobile application, the fraudsters used to make the victims ‘invest’ money in different accounts, said police.

“The victims were asked to gather more people to join the scheme, by luring them with some commission amount. Links of YouTube videos were sent to them and they were paid ₹40 for giving a like for each video,” said the officer.

The victims were also lured to become a ‘gold’ member by paying ₹4,000, ‘platinum’ by paying ₹25,000 and ‘diamond’ member by paying ₹50,000, police added.

As many as 21 UPI IDs were provided by the victims to the police. “It was found that there had been a transaction of ₹107 crore in these UPI ID-linked bank accounts in the last one year. After getting information about the bank accounts, the suspects’ contact numbers were put under surveillance and it was found that they were operating from Greater Noida,” said the officer.

The police recovered over 150 SIM cards — 96 of them activated, two laptops, ₹30,000 cash, 110 Chinese Yuan, 10,000 in Korean currency notes and 5,000 Cambodian currency notes from the possession of the two suspects.

The STF registered an FIR under sections of cheating and forgery of documents of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), provisions of the Information Technology (IT) Act and Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act.

“Upon interrogation, the two suspects revealed the involvement of 10 other people in the case. A case has been registered against a total of 12 people, of which seven are Chinese nationals — including the two arrested — and five are Indian citizens,” said the officer.

“The suspects informed us that they started the mobile application along with some Indian citizens. After gaining the trust of the victims, they made them link their bank account with the mobile application and got them to deposit money under various pretexts. This money was transferred into the bank of the Indian citizens and from there it was converted into crypto currency and sent to bank accounts in China,” said the officer.

The FIR also names Ravi Natwarlal, who was earlier arrested by the Gautam Budh Nagar police for his involvement with an illegal club being run in Gharbara village along with a Chinese national Xu Fei.

Xu was arrested on June 13 for illegally staying in India and for being involved in running the illegal club.

The suspects revealed that a Chinese national, identified as Li Zhongjun, had developed the mobile application, said police.

“Upon inquiry, it was found that Li was arrested by the Hyderabad Police on September 29 in a cyber crime case and has been lodged in a jail in Hyderabad,” said the officer.