15,000 Indians duped of Rs 700-cr; Hyderabad Police bust ring with China links I Oneindia News

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The Hyderabad Police have uncovered one of the largest cybercrime syndicates operating in India. The Police have busted a Rs 712 crore investment fraud by Dubai-based Chinese operators and have arrested nine people in the case. The Cyber Crimes Unit that busted the racket also seized 17 mobile phones, two laptops, 22 sim cards, four debit cards, documents pertaining to 33 companies, passports, and a few currency notes. The police believe that the gang cheated gullible investors in the country to the tune of Rs 712 crore and routed this money to China through Dubai in the form of crypto currency. This gigantic fraud reportedly involved Chinese handlers in which 15,000 Indians were duped of over ₹ 700 crore in less than a year.  The Police also believe that a part of the money was converted into cryptocurrency and deposited into an online wallet operated by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. So far, Police have arrested  four from Hyderabad, three from Mumbai and two from Ahmedabad - and they are on the lookout for at least six more.      #Hyderbadcybercrimeringbusted #15000indiansdupedof700crore #Hyderabad                 ~PR.153~ED.102~HT.96~

Transcript

00:00 The Hyderabad police have uncovered one of the largest cybercrime syndicates operating

00:15 in India. The police have busted a Rs 712 crore investment fraud by Dubai-based Chinese

00:21 operators and have arrested nine people in the case. The cybercrime unit that busted

00:26 the racket also seized 17 mobile phones, two laptops, 22 SIM cards, four debit cards, documents

00:34 pertaining to 33 companies, passports and a few currency notes. The police believe that

00:39 the gang cheated gullible investors in the country to the tune of Rs 712 crore and routed

00:46 this money to China through Dubai in the form of cryptocurrency. This gigantic fraud reportedly

00:52 involved Chinese handlers in which 15,000 Indians were duped of over Rs 700 crore in

00:57 less than a year. The police also believe that a part of the money was converted into

01:02 cryptocurrency and deposited into an online wallet operated by the Lebanese militant group

01:08 Hezbollah. So far, police have arrested four from Hyderabad, three from Mumbai and two

01:14 from Ahmedabad and they are on the lookout for at least six more. The arrests were made

01:19 after an investment fraud complaint was filed at Hyderabad cybercrime station by a city-based

01:25 businessman who lost Rs 28 lakhs to fraudsters. According to the police, the complainant was

01:31 offered a part-time trading job through Telegram messaging app, after which he registered on

01:36 the website that facilitated the investment fraud. Initially, the victim was given the

01:41 job of writing a set of tasks, such as liking YouTube videos or writing reviews online after

01:47 investing smaller amounts of money for which he earned a profit. A fake window then showed

01:53 the money perpetually earned by the complainant but he was not allowed to withdraw the money

01:58 till he completed all the tasks. By then, he had already put in several lakhs of rupees.

02:04 Later, he was asked for a withdrawal fee of Rs 17 lakhs to get back the invested amount

02:10 including profits. The police found that the victim's money had been transferred to six

02:15 accounts including an account maintained in the name of Mesar's Radhika Marketing. From

02:20 here, the money was transferred to Dubai and used for the purchase of cryptocurrency. Police

02:26 teams visited different states across the country and checked several hundred bank transactions

02:31 to understand the magnitude of the fraud. Further investigation revealed that another

02:36 Rs 128 crore had been swindled by the scamsters. A total of 113 Indian bank accounts were used

02:44 in this scam. They then realised that over 15,000 Indians all across the country had

02:50 been duped using the same modus operandi. The money moved through multiple accounts

02:55 and was converted into cryptocurrency. It was then routed to China through Dubai. Details

03:01 of the transactions revealed that some of the accounts were being operated by a Dubai-based

03:05 group using remote access apps. The people in the Dubai group had connections with the

03:10 Chinese network and were transferring money into crypto wallets. During their interrogation,

03:16 the arrested person have told the police that the accounts were opened on the direction

03:19 of three other people involved in the scam whom they have only identified as Manish,

03:25 Vikas and Rajesh. The police are on the lookout for these three men. Some of the wallets used

03:31 for this were owned by Ahmedabad-based Prakash Moolchand Bhai Prajapati and Kumar Prajapati,

03:37 both of whom have now been arrested. The police have claimed that Prakash coordinated with

03:42 the Chinese for supplying Indian bank accounts and would share the OTPs for operating those

03:47 accounts from Dubai and China through remote access apps.

03:55 [MUSIC PLAYING]

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