The Wayanad cyber crime police on Saturday arrested four youths who had been allegedly cheating people in an online sweepstake scam at Peethampura in Delhi.
The police identified the arrested as Sintu Sharma, 31, hailing from Bihar, who runs a call centre in Delhi, his aids, including Tamil Nadu native Aman, 39, and two Kerala natives Abhishek, 25, and Praveen alias Anil, 24.
The four were arrested when the police were investigating a complaint by one of the victims at Vythiri in Wayanad, District Police Chief R. Anand said. In his complaint, the victim told the police that he had reportedly received a call on behalf of the “customer care centre” of an e-commerce platform informing him that he had won a luxury vehicle for a purchase made recently, Mr. Anand said .
Later, the fraudsters reportedly collected ₹12 lakh from the victim as processing charges to claim the gift, he said. Though the victim had paid the amount on different occasions, he was cheated, Mr. Anand added.
The police seized 32 mobile phones that were used to cheat similar victims. They also recovered personal details of thousands of customers who had purchased articles from different e-platforms. The accused were wanted in similar cases in the State, Mr. Anand said.
The accused had used the SIM cards and bank accounts of poor people in West Bengal for the scam, he said.
The cyber police team was led by Shaju Joseph, Station House Officer, Cyber police station, Kalpetta. They stayed for a week in Delhi to nab the culprits.
