Twelve people have been arrested for allegedly cheating 3,000 victims of online fraud by creating a fake crime reporting portal, officials said on Friday.
The fraudsters have cheated people of Rs 1.74 crore in last one year, they said.
The accused have been identified as P Singh (23), S Pandey (23), OB Srivastava (23), P D Kumar (23), A Kumar (30), A Sharma (25), M Wasim (23), K Singh (25), A Ali (22) and M Nadeem (27), they said.
The accused targeted those who had already been cheated and were trying to lodge a formal complaint, the police said.
The police received a complaint in which the victim alleged that when he was trying to register a complain about an cheating incident, he came across a website — www.jansurkashakendara.in — which claimed to be a crime reporting portal, a senior police officer said.
The victim called on the phone number provided on the website. The man who answered informed the victim that they were authorized people working with the government and they would lodge his complaint, the officer said.
On the pretext of lodging his complaint, the accused charged Rs 2,850 from the victim. Once they received the payment, the accused blocked the victim’s number, police said.
During investigation, the police found that several people had been cheated by the fraudsters. Seven more similar complaints were found registered at National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal. The victims, who have been cheated by the fraudsters, were again cheated on the pretext of helping them, the officer said.
The bank account details of the payment gateways revealed that the fraudsters had received Rs 1,74,00,000 in last one year, police said.
Based on technical intelligence, 12 people, including two women, were arrested on Thursday from Noida in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations) KPS Malhotra said.
Seven laptops, 25 mobiles, one four-wheeler and Rs 52,500 in cash have been recovered, police said.
The accused had created a website and attracted victims of cybercrime to lodge complaints on their portal, the DCP said.
When the victims used to call on the phone numbers given on the website, the accused pretended to be government officials. They used to charge money, ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 30,000, from the victims on the pretext of lodging and enquiring their complaint. After receiving the money, the accused generally blocked the number of victims, Malhotra said.
Further, the accused have also created similar websites with names Jan Shikayat Kendra, Grahak Suraksha Kendra, Nyaya Bharat and others, police added.
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