PNN
Berhampur, July 17: Police Friday claimed to have cracked a case of online fraud with the arrest of three persons including the mastermind of the con from a mobile shop of Ganesh Market here.
The accused were identified as V Shankar Rao (28) of Shastri Nagar and his two aides Kalia Sahoo (21) of Chaitanya Nagar and B Rajesh Kumar (20) of Surangi village under Jarada police limits. The trio duped some e-commerce majors of `20 lakh by using 5,000 fake mail-ids and 1,000 mobile SIM cards, superintendent of police Sarthak Sarangi said at a press conference at the police headquarters.
Nine laptops, 1,000 SIM cards, 22 mobile phones, 18 brand new handsets, tablets, seven bank passbooks, four cheque books, eight ATM cards, five dongles and accessories of a reputed e-retailer were seized from their possession. The police have also frozen their six bank accounts.
According to police reports, Rao has a mobile shop in Ganesh Market. He used to buy products, mostly mobile handsets and memory cards, from online portals like Amazon, Snapdeal and Flipkart. His modus operandi was, he often managed to get the cost of products returned from the concerned companies claiming he had received low quality products despite receiving the genuine ones. In the process he used to keep the genuine item with him and return a substandard product to the respective companies.
Rao had engaged 10 youths with a monthly salary of ` 6,000 to buy online products at discounted prices using fake mail-ids and SIM cards. Later, he used to sell them at the market price. As the formula didn’t catch anyone’s attention, Rao started supplying the items to other shops and set up an online trading company in the name of ‘No Credit Shop’. Kalia and Rajesh were helping Rao in his operations.
Meanwhile, it came to notice that some exclusive items of an online trading company were available in the market. Suspecting mischief, Shivam Pathela, the dealer of Delhi-based Jasper Infotech met the SP and lodged a complaint. Following this, the police probed the matter and arrested the three. The accused were produced in a court Friday.
