Bhubaneswar: In yet another case of cyber fraud, the Commissionerate Police Sunday busted a fake online job racket and arrested three men who allegedly duped a man to the extent of Rs 2.5 lakh. The accused men lured the victims into their trap by offering money, in exchange for five-star ratings to hotels and restaurants, said ACP Anjana Tudu. The accused men were identified as Balgopal Barik, 28, Debendra Kumar Sethi, 28 and Sandip Kumar Rout, 23. Prima facie, the cops have found that the men used the Telegram application to swindle money from victims’ mule accounts. Tudu said the complainant, Ajay Kumar Panda, 40, a resident of Patia area, alleged that he was contacted by the trio over WhatsApp application to give online positive ratings to hotels for money. Agreeing this, Ajay rated five stars to several hotels and received the money.
Following this, the trio asked Ajay to join a Telegram group, VIP 5000, and make an investment of Rs 5,000 to earn high returns. Later, he received the money and was again asked by the miscreants to make investments in lakhs. This time, too, Ajay made a transaction of Rs 2.5 lakh.
However, a few days after the transaction, Ajay was removed from the group and trio went incommunicado, Tudu added. According to the preliminary investigations, the money was debited to a bank account registered by the name, Acadify Technology. In order to swindle money, the miscreants had opened 10 mule accounts in several bank branches of Bhubaneswar. The Cyber police station at VSS Nagar booked the miscreants under Sections 419 and 420 of IPC, along with Sections 66 and 67 of IT Act. The accused were produced before a local court for remand.
DEBADURLLAV HARICHANDAN, OP
