'Don't fall for the 'likeand-subscribe' scam', Bengaluru police alerts citizens

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: In a major crackdown, the Economic Offences Wing of the Central Crime Branch (CCB) unearthed an online fraud syndicate that was allegedly involved in duping gullible people through promises of providing 'Work-FromHome' employment.

The investigating officers traced and arrested 11 people who were operating from Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

Explaining the pattern of the racket and its consecutive clampdown by the city police, Bengaluru Police Commissioner B Dayananda said that an initial complaint filed by a resident regarding the online job scam led to an investigation into this major racket.

Probe began based on a complaint

A resident of BEL Layout in Bengaluru allegedly lost Rs 18.7 lakh to the fraudsters during August 18 last year, following which he approached the CCB.

In his complaint he had stated that he received an anonymous message on WhatsApp offering him an online job with an opportunity to earn Rs 500 to Rs 10,000 daily from the comfort of his home. 

The fraudsters later convinced him to transfer Rs 18.75 lakh to 12 different accounts on multiple occasions citing enrollment charges.

A team of CCB officials led by Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abdul Ahad, launched an investigation and tracked down the accused through the bank transactions.

Further the police claimed to have frozen 30 bank accounts belonging to the accused. The police detected around 2,143 cases filed against the accused across 28 states, including 265 cases in Karnataka through National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP).

Modus Operandi of the accused

The accounts were linked to 135 cases across 14 police stations in Bengaluru alone.

Among 11 arrested, four accused are residents of Bengaluru and had helped the other accused in opening the bank accounts.

“These four accused went to Hyderabad and opened accounts with different banks using temporary local addresses and permanent addresses of Bengaluru. The account details were later handed over to one of the main accused in return for commission. The main accused would then send these details through private courier to another sub-operator. The Mumbai sub-operator would hand over the details to the main operator, who acted at the behest of the kingpin, who is presently believed to be based out of the country.

Bengaluru Police Chief Dayananda said that it was a wellorganised crime syndicate where all the accused had been assigned roles with a few people operating from abroad.

The accused had pulled off transactions worth over Rs 158 crore using these bank accounts. So far the CCB have managed to recover Rs 62.8 lakh from the accused.

Eleven mobile phones and 15 SIM cards used by them have been seized, he said.

"While the amount stolen from the victim runs into several hundred crores, the recovery amount was much less. This is because the accused used to withdraw the cash as soon as it was credited into the bank. We are contemplating identifying the property of the accused for seizure and recovery," Dayananda added.