BALANGIR: Balangir police successfully busted a major cyber scam and arresting four persons from Rajasthan for defrauding people to the tune of Rs 76 lakh posing as representatives of a crypto trading company.
The arrests were made after an FIR was lodged with the cyber police in which it was alleged that the accused defrauded victims by posing as representatives of GBE Crypto Trading Company through Telegram, WhatsApp, and other social media platforms.
The investigation revealed that the suspects executed their fraudulent scheme through mobile applications as well as by using messaging services such as Telegram, and WhatsApp. They created fake cryptocurrency trading applications and websites which they used to deceive gullible people. To obscure their identities, they employed VPN services and in some cases, hacked into others’ WhatsApp accounts too, police said.
The perpetrators set up fraudulent domains and applications mimicking legitimate crypto trading platforms and distributed them via Telegram and WhatsApp. They also managed to acquire corporate and personal banking details, including current and savings accounts, debit cards, SIM cards and online banking credentials, which they used to make money, police added.
The accused Vikash Pareek (31), Pawan Singh (30), Vijay Raj Sharma (33) and Harshit Chauhan (21) were apprehended following an investigation led by ASP, Balangir Amritpal Kour.
Balangir SP Rishikesh Khilari said police have frozen 60 bank accounts associated with the accused and their accomplices. Over Rs 85 lakh have been frozen across these accounts which are suspected of being involved in the fraudulent transactions.