KOCHI: Police have arrested four persons who syphoned off Rs 17 lakhs from a housewife offering an online job in Edathala near Aluva. Kozhikode Peruvayal natives Muhammad Minhaj (22), Mithal Shihadali (27) and two others under the age of 20 were arrested by the Ernakulam Rural Cyber Police team.
The accused persons circulated messages through various social media platforms offering online jobs. When the victim applied for the job, she was asked to register with an online portal. At first, she was tasked with giving ratings to food products on a website. As remuneration, the accused persons gave her a small amount.
After gaining her trust, the accused persons induced her to invest in their firm. Thus, the victim started making investments up to Rs five lakhs. In return, she received a small amount as profit of the investment.
Promising a higher dividend, the accused persons lured the victim to invest Rs 17 lakhs. Even though the profit from the investment was reflected in her login account, the amount was never credited to her bank account when she attempted to retrieve the money.
"All communications with the complainant was through the Telegram app. After registering a case when we checked the bank accounts to which the victim had transferred her money, it was found that each accused person operated over eight accounts."
"The transactions of over Rs two crores were found in these bank accounts. Based on the bank account details, we tracked the accused persons and arrested them. As two accused persons were under the age of 20, they were shifted to Borstal School in Kakkanad. Two main accused are remanded to judicial custody," a police officer said.
Police suspect that more accused are involved in the online fraud. Also, several more people were similarly targeted by the group. The probe under the supervision of Ernakulam Rural Police Chief Vaibhav Saxena was carried out by a team under Cyber Police Station SHO R Roj.