10 scammers held in digital fraud crackdown
An international digital fraud syndicate allegedly involved in cheating its victims of over Rs 50 crore by impersonating law enforcement officials has been busted with the arrest of 10 people, including the alleged mastermind.
According to the police, the arrests were made in raids across seven states — Delhi, Maharashtra, Kerala, Odisha, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana — as part of a probe that began in southeast Delhi.
"One of the accused was arrested at Mumbai airport while he was attempting to fly to Dubai," an officer said.
The syndicate operated a digital arrest scam, threatening its victims through video calls while impersonating police officers. The callers would lie to their targets that their Aadhaar and mobile numbers were linked to serious criminal cases and would coerce them into transferring money to avoid arrest.
The fraud came to light with a complaint filed on December 7 by a Shaheen Bagh resident, who alleged that he had been cheated of Rs 99,888 after receiving threatening video calls from fraudsters posing as Karnataka Police.
An FIR was registered under Section 318(4) (Cheating) of the BNS, and a probe was launched into the alleged fraud. Investigations revealed that the arrested accused were part of an interstate and cross-border network involving mule bank accounts, illegal SIM activation and social media authentication using multiple devices, police said.
"Financial analysis and technical surveillance showed that more than Rs 50 crore was linked to at least 66 complaints registered against the accused on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal," the officer said, adding, two members of the syndicate are still absconding.
Police said the arrested accused played different roles, including procurement of mule accounts, handling debit cards, illegal SIM activation, and routing of proceeds of crime.
Several of them have a cyber fraud history, indicating a well-established criminal ecosystem, they said.
During the operation, police seized 10 mobile phones, multiple debit and credit cards, digital evidence including WhatsApp chats and voice notes, and a car allegedly used by the accused.
