Delhi Police have arrested a key member of an organised racket of online cheaters belonging to the Mewat region of Bharatpur, Rajasthan, who used to cheat people online impersonating as army officer and on the pretext of buying or selling goods on OLX, Facebook marketplace etc., the police said on Monday.
The accused has been identified as Ajrudin, a resident of Nuh district in Haryana who was also a national-level wrestler.
According to the police, an FIR was registered on the complaint of Pooja Thakkar, a resident of Paschim Vihar, Delhi, wherein it was alleged that she posted an advertisement on OLX to sell her old dining table.
“Someone named Ragini Mishra on OLX accepted the offer and agreed to pay Rs 10,000 for the table. The buyer (the fraudster) connected with her via WhatsApp. The fraudster then sent a screenshot to the complainant by saying that Rs 10,000 has been paid.
“When the complainant told the fraudster that she did not receive the money, the fraudster sent her a Paytm link and asked her to click on it to receive the payment. When she clicked on the said link, Rs 10,000 got debited from her account,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer), Harendra Singh.
When Thakkar inquired about deduction of money from the fraudster, he replied that it was done by mistake and sent her another Paytm link and asked her to click on it to receive the money back.
“As soon as she clicked on the link, a sum of Rs 10,000 was again debited from her account. By doing this repeatedly, Rs 1,38,894 got debited from her account,” the DCP said.
During investigation, technical surveillance of all the connected call detail records of the alleged numbers, mobile numbers connected to bank accounts and Internet Protocol Detail Records (IPDRs) was done, and the accused operating the bank accounts used for receipt of cheated money was traced to a hotel in Sector 48, Gurugram.
“On interrogation, it was revealed that around one year ago, he met people who used to cheat others online. They needed more people who could receive cheated money in their bank accounts and provide them the cheated money safely. Ajrudin started working with them on 10 per cent commission of cheated money,” the DCP said.
Ajrudin used to purchase bank accounts of other persons by paying Rs 20,000 to Rs 50,000 one time and then used to provide those bank account details to online cheaters in Mewat region for receipt of cheated money.
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