The Delhi Police has arrested four men for allegedly operating multiple fake websites of popular brands and duping aspiring businessmen on the pretext of getting them franchise, dealership and distributorship of these reputed brands.
The accused have been identified as Vinay Vikram Singh, (37), Vikas Mistri (24), Vinod Kumar (27) and Santosh Kumar (32).
The accused were running fake sites of reputed brands such as Amul, Patanjali and Haldiram etc they got these fake websites developed, then got their similar sounding domains registered, and also got these fake sites enlisted and promoted through Google Ads for higher ranking and visibility on Google, police said.
Police said they have freezed 17 banks and around 126 cyber fraud incidents across 16 states are found to be linked to this gang and it is estimated that the gang has cheated people of over Rs. 1.1 crore so far.
According to Anyesh Roy, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Cyber Crime Unit (CyPAD), the matter came to light after one of the victim was cheated by the gang. In her complaint, she told them she wanted to ran an outlet of Haldiram and while surfing online, she came across an website claiming to be of Haldiram and it offered franchise and dealership.
“When she contacted on the given mobile number, she was asked to fill the forms, submit documents and pay for various charges on the pretext of verification, security deposit etc and ended up being duped for Rs.11.74 Lakh over a period of two months. When she was again asked to pay another Rs.1.6 Lakh on a flimsy ground, she realised that she was cheated by these fraudsters in the name of Haldiram dealership,” said the DCP.
“During the course of investigation, it was found that a large number of fake websites are running in the name of Haldiram, and all these websites are offering franchisee of Haldiram against consideration of huge amounts,” said the DCP.
“It was also found that a large number of people across the country have become victims of these fake websites. It also came to our notice that these fraudsters were using multiple bank accounts and a large number of bogus SIM cards running in more than 36 smartphones to cheat people. The details of all these were obtained and the suspects were zeroed in,” said the DCP.
“On the night of August 27 and 28, raids were conducted at various places in India including Nalanda (Bihar), Faridabad (Haryana), Ludhiana (Punjab) and Delhi. This led to the arrest of four members of the gang,” said the DCP.
“During interrogation, accused Vikas revealed that he along with his associates used to purchase the domain names of big brands and got the websites developed in such a manner that it appeared as the genuine website of the big brands. One phone number was also displayed on the website. When someone called on the given number for distributorship of the brand, he was asked to pay fees on pretext of various charges,” said the DCP.
“Vikas used to switch location between Bihar and Ludhiana. In Ludhiana, he used to stay for months and do the same work there with accused Vinod and Santosh, who both are his relatives. They were given commission from the cheated amount, the DCP said.