BENGALURU: The North CEN police busted an online investment fraud racket operating in the city and arrested 10 individuals, including three who provided their bank account details to the fraudsters. The police are working to recover the defrauded money.
The arrested are Srinivas Reddy (43), Akash GM (27), Prakash H (43), Sunil Kumar (45), Kishor Kumar (29), Ravi Shankar (24), Suresha V (41) and the bank account holders are Madhusudana Reddy (41), Obul Reddy (29), and Sai Prajwal (38), all residents of Bengaluru.
The police said the accused were involved in online investment fraud, through which they allegedly conned a man of Rs 88 lakh. The victim registered a case at the North CEN police station.
The police collected details of the bank accounts to which the money was transferred and traced one of the accused, who used to contact the victim, through a phone number, and he was duly arrested. Upon questioning, the police learned about an office used by the scamsters. A raid led to the arrest of the others. The police recovered 51 mobile phones, 27 debit cards, 480 SIM cards, 108 bank passbooks, 48 bank accounts, 42 rubber stamps, and 103 GST and other financial documents.
The police further added that the arrested individuals are small players, operating locally under instructions from a kingpin in Dubai. They were paid to create bank accounts and mule accounts from others that facilitated the fraudulent transactions. The accused were paid commission as per the transaction amount.
The police said the accused lured victims through stock market advertisements online and added them to WhatsApp groups like BRANDWINE Group and E8 BRANDWINE Group Marketing. The victims were directed to download the Brandy Speed app -- a fake trading app -- for investments.
The accused convinced victims to invest in IPOs and stocks they recommended. Initially, the victims received returns on their investments, which encouraged them to invest more. However, the fraudsters eventually froze the victims’ accounts, preventing them from withdrawing their money.