Bhubaneswar: The Commissionerate Police Thursday claimed to have busted an online fake job racket and arrested four persons, including a couple, for allegedly duping a man of `11 lakh over a telegram application. Bhubaneswar DCP Prateek Singh identified the accused as Trupti Ranjan Patra, 31, Banalata Sahoo, 27, Manas Ranjan Suna, 35, and Nihar Ranjan Paikray, 35. “The couple, Trupti and Banalata, natives of Ganjam district, had created 42 mule accounts in numerous banks to commit the fraud”, Singh added. Revealing the modus operandi of the syndicate, Singh said, initially the scammers would contact random users on the telegram platform and offer them money in exchange of reviewing products online. After several exchanges, the victim/s would place their trust in the scammers.
Later, Singh said, the scammers would manipulate the victims into making investments in fake schemes. Following the payments, they would block them and go incommunicado. Singh added the racket came under the scanner of cops after the complainant, Abdul Akbar Khan, registered an FIR at Cyber police station, alleging that the accused members had swindled Rs 11 lakh from him on the pretext of providing him a job. “After Abdul transferred the money, the scammers were found to have split it in 11 different bank accounts,” he said adding that the police contacted the branches of the banks and obtained their address before rounding them up today.
A preliminary probe has revealed that the accused couple hired several youths in the Capital City for Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000 per month, for creating mule accounts using genuine persons’ credentials. So far, the cops have traced the highest deposit of Rs 46 lakh in one of these accounts. The Cyber police station booked the foursome under Sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act, along with other provisions of IPC and produced them before a local court for remand.
DEBADURLLAV HARICHANDAN, OP
