Mumbai cyber police nabs engineer for duping using fake websites
Cyber police officers of Mumbai have arrested a computer engineer from Bihar for allegedly cheating dozens of people through around 160 fake websites
Cyber police officers of Mumbai have arrested a computer engineer from Bihar for allegedly cheating dozens of people through around 160 fake websites.
The websites, allegedly made by the accused Sonu Kumar Chaudhari, were used by online fraudsters to cheat people under the pretext of allotting them the dealerships of some companies, advancing loans and data entry jobs, said the police.
Chaudhari would charge ₹2 lakh for making a website. During his interrogation, he revealed that was doing so to make easy money, as during the lockdown, his computer solutions company had shut down and he was left unemployed. Chaudhari also owns a small firm, Mithila Info Software, which had to be shut during the lockdown. Hence, he decided to work for the online fraud groups, a police officer said.
Chaudhari holds a BTech degree and is currently pursuing an MTech course. He was arrested after the representatives of a tyre manufacturing giant approached the cyber police in January, alleging that their company’s fake website had been created, and under the pretext of allotting dealerships, people were being cheated through the website.
The police registered a first information report (FIR) and found some technical leads in the matter.
“We traced the suspect to Darbhanga, Bihar, and arrested him recently. Chaudhari admitted that he had created 15 similar websites and helped coding 150 others. For each fake website, he would get around ₹2 lakh,” said deputy commissioner of police (DCP), Cyber, Rashmi Karandikar.
Around ₹50 lakh has been found from his bank account, the police said.
The police have seized Chaudhari’s phones, laptop, tabs and hard disk. They are analysing his phone call details and are looking for his partners, another Cyber police officer said.