Chandigarh cyber cell busts gangs, arrests 19 fraudsters in two months

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 1

The UT police cybercrime investigation cell has arrested 19 criminals in connection with six fraud cases in the past two months. The police said 4,414 complaints were lodged against these cybercriminals in various regions of the country.

They said the fraudsters had managed to deceive victims out of nearly Rs 15 crore. The police disclosed that a significant portion of fraudulent activity occurred through instant loan apps.

Two major gangs busted by the city police had defrauded victims of approximately Rs 11 crore. The police said one of the gangs had 1,666 complaints and 76 FIRs registered against them. The gang had swindled around Rs 5.56 crore from the people who had sought small loans through the apps.

The gang, which was being operated from Dubai in the UAE, offered loans via apps and subsequently coerced victims into paying money by threatening them with sending their morphed pictures to their contacts.

A woman resident of Chandigarh, who had taken a loan from an app, said she transferred the amount through UPI to various bank accounts, but the suspects kept demanding more money. They told the woman that they had access to her mobile phone and contacts saved in it, and would send her morphed pictures to everyone. The victim got intimidated and transferred around Rs 4.38 lakh.

Similarly, another gang that was dismantled by the cyber sleuths had duped people to the tune of Rs 5.21 crore on the pretext of providing jobs to them. A total of 1,569 complaints were received against the gang from different parts of India, and 68 FIRs were registered against them.

“People searching for jobs had fallen prey to this gang that collected information about victims from various job portals,” said a police officer.

Two more cyber criminal gangs, who used to cheat people by offering them online jobs and work from home tasks, were busted. One of the gangs used to offer work from home tasks, they had 358 complaints and 13 cases registered against them in different states, the police said. The gang had deceived victims of Rs 99 lakh.

Another gang using same modus operandi had duped gullible people of Rs 98 lakh. The police had also busted a gang that targeted victims searching customer care numbers on Google. The scam involves fake customer care numbers being posted on Google and cheating people who call on those numbers, said an official. The police said there were as many as 630 complaints against his gang that had defrauded people of Rs 1.87 crore.

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