Business: Navi Mumbai Police has busted a share trading fraud involving China and Cambodia. Officials said that the police have arrested seven people who defrauded investors of crores of rupees. He informed that as a result of this success, cyber police have frozen 118 bank accounts in several states of India. Also, a total amount of Rs 32.5 lakh related to fraudulent transactions has been secured.

How was this fraud exposed?
The cyber crime branch unearthed the fraud while investigating the case of a victim who was defrauded of Rs 1.07 crore, officials said. The investigation revealed that fraudsters targeted multiple victims between September 2 and October 8. They were lured into sending money to multiple bank accounts after promising them high profits in stock market trading through investment advertisements on various social media platforms.

False promise of big profits?
They used a fake application to show huge, but virtual, profits on the amount invested and lured victims into investing large sums of money on the basis of false profits. According to police, the fraudsters later refused to return the victims’ original investment.

Navi Mumbai Police informed that a network linked to cyber fraudsters in China and Cambodia has been dismantled. The cyber police team initially arrested Suresh Talekar (29) and his associate Vikas Awhad (30) from Pune. Further investigation of the third accused (who was not arrested) revealed that he had met three unidentified Hindi-speaking persons, suspected to be from another state, and handed over SIM cards linked to some bank accounts at a hotel in Mahape, Navi Mumbai.

Fraudsters were in contact through Telegram app
Police said interrogation of the accused revealed direct international links as three of them were in touch with cyber fraudsters in China and Cambodia through the Telegram app. He said the main role of the accused was to transmit one-time passwords (OTPs) generated from current bank account transactions using an application to their operators abroad. The police appealed to the people to be cautious of the advertisements of stock market investment on social media and not to be tempted to make high profits.