Bhubaneswar: Cyber sleuths Thursday busted an online gambling den operating out of a rented flat in Sundarpada area, and detained four of its alleged conduits who are suspected to be members of a pan-India syndicate. Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Anjana Tudu said while two of the detained suspects hailed from Delhi, the remaining two were natives of Hyderabad and Gujarat, respectively.
Tudu added that the foursome is currently being questioned. Two PCs, 1 laptop, 20 smartphones, 3 passports, Wi-fi, router, CCTV equipment, and Rs 18,700 cash has been seized from the four men during searches. Tudu said the sleuths made a swoop on the flat located on the sixth floor of Presitge Apartments in Sundarpada area, under Airfield police station limits, early Thursday following a tip-off. She said the foursome was taken by surprise by the unexpected police action. “They failed to give satisfactory answers to our queries over the purpose of the gadget setup in the fl at,” Tudu said adding they were detained afterwards and taken for questioning at the Cyber police station. During preliminary investigations, the Cyber cops have allegedly learnt that the suspects had created a duplicate version of WINBUZZ365, a Chinese betting application, and lured hundreds of unsuspecting people into investing large sums of money by promising high returns.
Explaining their modus operandi, Tudu said the group would ask potential investors to join WhatsApp and Telegram groups created by them to know more about the betting application. Over a period of time they will entice the group members into investing by putting fake screenshots of individuals receiving huge interest on investments offered by them. “They create a trap. After coughing up large investments, the fraudsters would block the investors’ numbers, and later remove them from the WhatsApp/Telegram groups,” a senior police officer, in the know of the probe, said.
