Hyderabad:The Cyber Crime Police, Cyberabad have arrested 10 cyber fraudsters, including five from Telangana, who had cheated the public in the name of prize or gift from popular e-commerce or Tele marketing companies.
Police seized 42 mobile phones, 2 laptops, 18 bundles of Envelop covers containing Naaptol letters along with Scratch cards, 28 debit cards, 10 Aadhaar Cards, two rubber stamps from their possession.
Based on complaints, Cyber Police arrested 10 members of a 15 member gang when they were cheating the public in the name of prize or gift from popular e-commerce or Tele marketing companies, a police release here said on Monday.
A complaint was lodged by a complainant on September 1, 2020 and he stated that on August 11, 2020 he got a call from Karthik posing as he is from Herbal Care Group and asked the details of the complainant.
Later on August 17, 2020, the victim received a letter through post, a scratch card, informing that the complainant won a TATA Safari car.
Then he also got a call from Mobile No. XXXXXX5318, and said that due to Covid-19 they cannot deliver the vehicle and informed that they will deposit the prize money to the bank account, and got a message from AD-SBI BNK like “TDS, GST, TAX is hold due to TDS, GST clearance is due Rs 45,150 “.
Then he also received a call from Arun Varma (Mobile No XXXXXX6339) and he was informed that to get the prize money he asked to pay the amount for TDS, GST clearance, and given 2 bank account numbers.
On that, the complainant paid the amount Rs 22,779 to the AC No. 39440650277, IFSC SBIN 0010153 of SBI Bank Account of Ashish Kumar and Rs 72,680 to the AC No 32280312681 IFSC SBIN0006418 of SBI Bank Account of Jayant Kumar Lenka. A Total of Rs. 95,459 was paid on August 20, 2020.
After that he received a call from Arun Varma XXXXXX6339 who asked for more money. Then the complainant realized that it is fraud and the said Karthik, Arun Varma, Ashish Kumar, Jayant Kumar Lenka and others and also the management of Herbal Care Group cheated him in the name of prize and lured Rs 95,459 and requested to take action, the release added.
The investigation revealed that the main accused Tarun Kumar collects the database of the customers of different e-commerce websites like Herbal Care Group, Shopclues, Club factory and Naaptol from Alok ) and Tiranju .
After that the accused Tarun Kumar along with Prabhakar Kumar Sinha prepare envelopes containing Naaptol, Shopclues, Herbal Care Group and other Company applications which are having a stamped bank seal and also a Scratch card and send them by post to customers.
On receipt of the above letters by post, many of the customers believe the said letter as genuine, as they have purchased some product or the other from the above mentioned online e-commerce companies at some point of time or the other.
Further the customers are calling the phone numbers mentioned in the post received by them and confirming the winning of the Tata Safari car or gift or other gifts. Whenever they receive any call on their number or on whatsapp number from the customer who received their letter, they send fake ID cards of e-commerce companies in whats app, so as to make the customer to believe them as genuine.
Once any of the customers believes the fraudster, the fraudster start asking for the amount to be paid into their bank accounts towards registration fee, document charges, GST, Income Tax, to claim either prize of car or amount, the release added.(UNI)
