From Sale to sextortion, How These 8 conmen used to conduct online fraud will blow your mind

Hyderabad:The cybercrime police, Cyberabad have arrested eight cyber fraudsters of Rajasthan for cheating the public in the name of sextortion, sale and purchase of vehicles, through various websites like Olx, Facebook Instagram, Youtube, Google ads and other advertisement platforms.15 mobiles of different companies, 14 SIM cards activated by different companies from their possession.

Based on a complaint, Cyberabad police brought here the accused-- --Kasam Singh (27), Babli Khan Banshi Khan (19), Samaydeen Jassa (24), Farukh Jom Khan (23), Saikul Khan Fajrudeen (22), Sahil Khan Jain Khan (19), Rahul Sahun Khan (19) and Arsad Eisab (26)-- on PT warrant from Alwar Jail of Rajasthan state.The accused were arrested by the Rajasthan police on June 20, 2021, for the same offence, a police release here said on Saturday.

Conned people as Buyer, Duped Rs 90,000

A complaint was lodged by D Srinivas, a resident of Hyderabad on March 3, 2020, and stated that On March 4, 2020, posted an ad on the OLX website for the selling of Cot worth Rs 16,000 vide OLX Ad ID No.1564253119. On March 5, the complainant received several calls from the fraudster and he showed interest to purchase the said product and sent a QR code for making payment, the complainant believed it as a Genuine scanned QR code, instead of credit, debit of Rs 90,000 in four transactions from the complainant’s HDFC Bank account.

After completion of the successful transaction, the fraudsters stopped responding to him, then the complainant realized that it was a fraud. The fraudsters and management of OLX cheated the complainant for Rs. 90,000. Hence the complainant requested necessary action against fraudsters.

Lured buyers with unbelivable low cost

The modus operandi was that the offenders post advertisements of the sale of cars/two-wheelers for a very less price than the market price on OLX, Quikr platforms, to attract and cheat the gullible public.

They pose themselves as Army officials and post ID cards as Army and CISF Personnel by creating fake Aadhar and Identity cards of Defence personnel, to gain the trust of the public who browse OLX or other advertising platforms.

If anyone shows interest to buy the vehicles/Goods, the fraudsters insist the victims deposit the money by citing different reasons such as advance amount, gate pass charges, shipment charges, Insurance charges and delivery charges by sending the fake transport receipts reflecting Indian army symbols.

Posed as Armymen as buyer and minted money

Further, they also respond to the advertisers who post any ads in OLX, Quikr for sale of any furniture/electronic goods or vehicles for sale and contact them by posing themself as Army or Defence officials. They, on the pretext of buying the goods, send QR codes to the advertisers and make them scan and cheat them.

Blackmailing from Nude video calls 

Further, the accused persons gather the WhatsApp number of the people and in the guise of friendship and dating, start chatting through WhatsApp or FB Messenger, after that, they start a nude video call and insist the victim watch the video.

After completing the call, they send a video reflecting the face and body of the victim, and start blackmailing that he is watching and disrobing himself while watching the video call. The fraudsters demand the victim to transfer the money; Otherwise, they can upload the video on the internet so that his reputation will be damaged.

In fear of that, several victims transfer the money to the accused accounts, the release added.(UNI)