HYDERABAD: The Rachakonda Police on Saturday stumbled upon an interstate gang of fraudsters who cheated at least 10 youngsters in the city by selling them cheap rip-offs of Apple iPhone and even boxes packed with stones.
The LB Nagar police arrested three persons, Mohammed Nizam, Mohammed Irfan of Delhi and Mohammed Sajauddin of Meerut on Saturday when the trio was suspiciously moving on a motorcycle with Karnataka registration.
As they could not respond properly, cops took them to the police station for questioning. During interrogation, the trio confessed to have cheated public on pretext of selling iPhones.
LB Nagar DCP Tafseer Iqbal said the accused Nizam and Irfan used to sell sweaters at Karolbagh in Delhi. When they got to know that Apple iPhone rip-offs were being sold in Karolbagh, they hatched a plan along with another person Ashraf to cheat people.
“Learning about the China-made phones, they posted about selling iphones for cheaper prices on the internet through OLX mobile app. They got some customers in Delhi and cheated them by handing over the fake phones and made easy money. After successful execution in Delhi, they decided to switch to other metros,” said Iqbal.
When Nizam, Irfan and Ashraf came to Hyderabad in Jan 2016, they stayed with their friends Sajauddin and Saleem, who were already settled in the city. The duo had opened Ayurvedic medicine shops for livelihood.
After coming to city, the trio roamed in the locality to get habituated to the places. Meantime, Saleem and Sajauddin became friends with a city resident Raheemuddin, who ran a petty business at Nampally.
Targeting software engineers and engineering graduates the accused responded when they received messages on OLX.
“They used to call the customer to an isolated place and showed the original iPhone first, and then handed over the box containing either the fake iphone or box with filled with stones. They cheated 10 people in LB Nagar and several others in Bengaluru and New Delhi,” the DCP said.
After committing the offence, they travelled in flights to Delhi or Bengaluru, to avoid suspicion and police vigil. The team seized `1 lakh in new currency, a bike, an original iPhone (6S) and four fake iPhones, some fake identification cards of the accused, and remanded them to judicial custody.