Delhi police have rounded up a gang of hi-tech cybercriminals and arrested four people who defrauded gullible people on the pretext of facilitating online loans, an official said on Sunday.
The suspects were identified as Deepak Patwa, 23, Sunil Kumar Khatik, 34, Sunil Kumar Khatik, 34, and Dev Kishan, 32, all residents of Chittorgarh, Rajasthan.
Deputy Police Commissioner (Rohini) Pranav Tayal said a complaint was filed by a man who claimed he received a text message on his phone with a link about getting a loan of Rs 2 lakh. “The man uploaded basic information on the same link, after which he received a WhatsApp call and was asked to prepay 5 percent of the loan amount, which will be repaid later,” the DCP said.
However, after depositing an amount of Rs 40,000 in three transactions, the alleged people stopped responding to WhatsApp.
During the investigation, based on the money trail, it was learned that the counterfeit amount had been transferred to bank accounts in Neemuch, Madhya Pradesh. “Upon further analysis, it was learned that more than Rs 75 lakh was transferred to the alleged account within two days and that Crypto currency i.e. USDT was bought from the defrauded money on various platforms,” the official said.
With the help of technical surveillance, it was learned that the accused were operating from the area of Chittorgarh, Rajasthan, after which the police raided and detained all four accused.
During the interrogation, the suspects revealed that they had been given this idea (modus operandi) of cheating from YouTube. They came into contact with some Chinese nationals through the Telegram app that defrauded innocent people under the pretense of facilitating online loans, the official said.
They bought the bank accounts and registered SIM cards by paying 1.5 percent to account holders and provided the same to the cheats via telegram.
The accused withdrew the defrauded money through UPI from various bank accounts and then converted it into cryptocurrency by buying USDT from counterfeit money on Binance Crypto Exchange. “The arrested accused Deepak Patwa received commission in USDT and later cashed it into his account and through hawala,” the official said.
Further investigation also revealed that the IP address of the alleged WhatsApp number is from China. “In order to communicate with the alleged WhatsApp number, the accused Deepak translated the messages received into Chinese into Hindi using Google Translator and also passed on his version with the help of Google translate,” Tayal said.
He said the investigation of the case is still ongoing and more victims of the suspects are being identified.
