The Ernakulam Rural cyber crime police have arrested two more persons in connection with the crores-worth online scam pulled off by offering part-time jobs.
The arrested are Rajesh, 21, of Ambur in Tamil Nadu and Chakradhar, 36, of Kurubarahalli, Bengaluru. They were nabbed from Bengaluru. The police had already arrested Manoj Srinivas, 33, of Bengaluru in connection with the case.
A team led by District Police Chief (Ernakulam Rural) Vaibhav Saxena led the investigation. The accused allegedly cheated two job aspirants from North Paravur to the tune of ₹7 lakh and ₹11 lakh by assigning them online tasks. As per initial estimates by the cyber crime police, the racket has pulled off cheating worth around ₹250 crore through 50 different accounts.
According to the police, Chakradhar was the accomplice of Manoj and enticed people to open current accounts, which the accused operated without the knowledge of the account holders for the scam. He used to target illiterate people for the purpose, and the account holders did not realise that crores of rupees was being transacted through their accounts.
Rajesh was an acquaintance of Chakradhar. Transactions worth ₹10 crore were found to have taken place through his account alone.
The victims were reportedly told that they could make an earning by ‘liking’ YouTube channels as a part-time job and that on investing ₹1,000, they could make ₹1,250. They were paid small sums as remuneration and profits to get them hooked so that they invested bigger amounts. Then, in the name of paying returns on the investments, they were made to cough up more money on the pretext of Goods and Services Tax and other taxes.
For pulling off the fraud, Srinivas reportedly got victims to open current accounts. However, the accounts were found to be managed by Srinivas and the racket without the knowledge of the account owners, the police said. This meant that if the ploy failed, the investigation never reached the accused.
For instance, a single account witnessed over 1,000 transactions a day. According to Srinivas’s statement, he had met over social media two persons named Kevin and Jaison who claimed to be employed in Dubai and they were his partners in crime. However, the police found that the names and social media accounts were fake, and that the accounts were operated from China. Money usurped through the accounts was found to have been converted into cryptocurrency and sent abroad.
Further investigation is under way as the police suspect more victims to have fallen prey to the racket.
