Aligarh (UP), Feb 7 (PTI) A pan-India cyber investment fraud allegedly involving overseas links was busted with the arrest of 12 people from six states, police said on Saturday.
The accused were arrested over the past 24 hours from Odisha, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh for allegedly running a nationwide cyber investment racket through WhatsApp groups, SP (Rural) Amrit Jain said.
Working in coordination with the Ministry of Telecommunications, the Aligarh cyber crime cell identified around 600 WhatsApp groups that were allegedly being used to lure and cheat investors across the country, Jain said.
Police claimed that timely action helped prevent an estimated fraud of about Rs 500 crore that could have affected more
than 1.5 lakh people nationwide.
The case came to light after Dinesh Sharma, a retired deputy general manager of Punjab National Bank, approached the cyber crime cell on January 31 and reported that he had been cheated of over Rs 11 lakh through a WhatsApp-based investment scheme, the SP said.
According to police, Sharma was allegedly lured with promises of returns of up to 40 per cent per week. Though initially reluctant, he invested Rs 5,000 as a trial amount on December 16 last year and received returns, which increased his confidence, officials said.
Subsequently, he was allegedly persuaded to make a larger investment and was even offered an opportunity to invest Rs 1 crore. When he declined, citing lack of funds, the fraudsters allegedly siphoned off Rs 11 lakh from him, police said.
Acting on the complaint, the cyber crime cell managed to recover Rs 5.64 lakh for Sharma and, in the process, uncovered the larger racket, Jain said.
Police said they contacted more than 500 members across the country who were part of the WhatsApp groups and warned them about the suspected fraud, averting large-scale losses.
The cyber crime cell is now seeking assistance from the CBI and Interpol to trace the alleged masterminds operating from several foreign countries, officials said.
The accused have been booked under relevant sections of the BNS and IT act. PTI COR CDN PRK
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