MADURAI: The Madurai district cyber crime police arrested three persons for allegedly cheating a man of Rs 1.32 crore via online under the pretext of a part-time job here on Saturday. The accused persons were identified as K Vadivelu (44) of Pondicherry, E Jeyaraman (30) of Pondicherry and K Ramalaingam (48) of Villupuram. The officials also seized gadgets, including a laptop and cell phones, allegedly used by the suspects to execute the crime.
According to police, the cyber police received a complaint on June 28 stating that a man was cheated of Rs 1.32 crore by unidentified persons. The victim had taken up an online job for which he was asked to pay a certain amount of money and complete an allotted task. Upon completion, the money will be refunded along with an extra amount for finishing the task. Soon after, the accused started insisting him to pay higher amounts, blocked his Telegram account, and cheated him of crores, police said.
Acting on the complaint, the police froze the account from which the transaction took place, and it had a balance of Rs 2.18 crore. Following further investigation, the officials nabbed the suspects, who are believed to be part of a larger gang operating from New Delhi.
"The main gang has cheated several people in Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tripura, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. While Rs 1.32 crore belongs to the complainant, the rest could belong to others who fell prey to the fraud," the police added.
Meanwhile, SP BK Arvind issued a warning to those involved in similar offences, and also urged the public to alert the police immediately by dialling 1930 or via www.cybercrime.gov.in.