With the arrest of four men, the Delhi Police on Sunday claimed to have busted a gang of hi-tech cyber criminals who used to cheat gullible people on pretext of facilitating online loans.
Police said that accused got this idea of cheating from YouTube and later they came in touch with some Chinese national on telegram who used to cheat innocent persons on pretext of facilitating online loans. Police have also recovered 15 debit cards and a BMW car from possession of accused. The accused have been identified as Deepak Patwa (23), Dev Kishan (32) and Suresh Singh (45), all residents of Chittorgarh district in Rajasthan and Sunil Kumar Khatik (34), a resident of Neemuch in Madhya Pradesh.
According to Pranav Tayal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Rohini district, a complaint was received at Cyber Police Station Rohini in which complainant alleged that he received a text message on his phone that “LIGHT your applied loan is approved, you can choose loan limit ranged from Rs. 2,00,000, please login App to get https://bit.ly/3jpHFeV” .
“The complainant followed the link and uploaded the basic details. Soon after he received a WhatsApp call from no. (+855) 718171626 and he was asked to deposit five per cent of the loan amount in advance, as per company rule which will be refunded later. After depositing a total Rs 40,000 in three transactions, he stopped responding on WhatsApp,” said the DCP.
“A case was registered and during investigation, on the basis of money trail, it was learnt that the cheated amount had been transferred into bank accounts at Neemuch, Madhya Pradesh. On further analysis, it was learnt that more than Rs 75 lakhs have been transferred into the alleged account within two days and Crypto Currency that is USDT is being purchased on various platforms from the cheated money,” said the DCP.
“On the basis of deep analysis, some suspects were zeroed in. Subsequently, technical surveillance was also mounted on the suspects and it was learnt that the alleged are operating from the area of Chittorgarh, Rajasthan. Raids were conducted and four accused were nabbed,” said the DCP.
“During interrogation, the accused persons disclosed that they used to procure the bank accounts and registered SIM cards by paying 1.5 per cent to the account owner and further provide the same to the cheats through telegram,” said the DCP.
“The accused used to get the cheated money in different bank accounts through UPI and then convert it into crypto currency by purchasing USDT from cheated money on Binance Crypto Exchange. Arrested accused Deepak Patwa used to receive commission in USDT and later redeem it into his account and through hawala,” said the DCP.
“On further investigation, it has also been learnt that the IP address of the alleged WhatsApp number belongs to China. In order to communicate with the alleged WhatsApp number, Deepak used to translate the messages received in Chinese language in Hindi with help of Google Translator and further also used to pass his version with help of Google translator,” said the DCP. Attachments area