New Delhi, Apr 24 (PTI) Four men were arrested here for allegedly cheating more than 500 people across the country in the name of online trading of cryptocurrency, police said on Monday.
The accused have been identified as Farhan Ansari (30), Sanjay Dabas (26), Pankaj Wadhwa (38) and Monu (42), they said.
Police said they have recovered 5.50 lakh cash from Wadhwa and also frozen around Rs 24 lakhs in different bank accounts of the accused.
In February, a Central Delhi resident was duped of Rs 22 lakhs in a single day using the same modus operandi, police said.
The woman, in her complaint, alleged that while searching for a job online, she received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number offering her to pay Rs 50 per like for liking the link sent to her on her WhatsApp, they said.
She opened the various links sent by the caller who identified herself as Xarina and liked them.
“Xarina then asked her to open a telegram link to receive the credited amount. She joined the Telegram channel ‘Mohini8’ and received Rs 150 in her bank account,” police said.
“Xarina gave her another task to invest in Cryptocurrency with the allurements of a huge profit. The first task started with Rs 1000. She got trapped in her net and lost around Rs 22 lakhs in a single day,” the complainant alleged.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Sanjay Sain said that based on inquiry, details of bank account transactions and call data records, it was discovered that a bank account of the accused had transactions of Rs 1 crore in a single day.
The bank accounts used for cheating were opened by creating fake documents of fake companies. The credited money was immediately further transferred to various other bank accounts, he said.
It was further revealed that an address in Netaji Subhash Place, New Delhi was used to open more than 10 bank accounts in the name of fake companies. The landlord was examined and it revealed that the place was given on rent to Dabas, the DCP said.
Later, accused Dabas was apprehended from his village Sultanpur and subsequently, his accomplice — Ansari was apprehended from Mahipalpur, he said.
“During interrogation, the accused revealed that about two years ago, they came in contact with Wadhwa, a resident of Rohini, who was involved in online cheating,” he said.
“On his allurement, they started arranging the current bank accounts in different names. Dabas took an office on rent in Netaji Subhash Place and Ansari used to arrange persons for opening these bank accounts using fake documents,” he added.
The DCP said that Wadhwa and his partner Bhupesh Arora were in contact with some Chinese people operating from Dubai.
“Most of the bank accounts opened by the fraudsters are with private banks. Police are also investigating if there is any irregularity in the opening of these bank accounts. Last year in March, Arora shifted to Dubai as various complaints were against him across the country,” he said.
Wadhwa and Monu were also arrested, police said, adding that both Dabas and Ansari had visited Dubai three times since November 2022 to meet Arora and their associates. PTI AMP AMP NB NB
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