Chandigarh, June 17 (UNI) Punjab Police’s State Cyber Crime Division has busted an inter-state

gang allegedly involved in investment fraud with the arrest of two people from Panchkula and Abohar,

said DGP Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Tuesday.

The modus operandi used by this gang was to lure innocent persons into their trap by offering high profits in stock market investment through Telegram and WhatsApp groups.

The fraudsters used to convince victims to install a fake APK application, which projected a huge return on his invested money. After seeing huge profit on the fake application, the victim continued to invest money in different bank accounts as directed by the fraudsters.

Those arrested have been identified as Varun Kumar, arrested from Panchkula, and Sahil Sethi, arrested from Abohar.

Investigations revealed that Varun Kumar had rented his bank account to Sahil Sethi on a commission basis, who further procured such Mule accounts for cyber financial frauds and delivered them to various locations in NCR region of New Delhi as per directions received from the kingpins through virtual mobile numbers.

DGP Yadav said that the kingpins were giving commission to arrested accused persons based on

the fraudulent amount transferred in these bank accounts (Mule accounts).

“Preliminary investigations have revealed that the arrested accused were involved in 34 other cyber fraud complaints spread across 14 states, with total scam amounts exceeding Rs eight crore,” the DGP said, adding that investigation is ongoing to uncover the virtual mobile numbers and the broader network behind these fraudulent activities.

UNI GS SS