Chennai, Oct 21 (IANS ) The cyber wing of the Tamil Nadu Police have arrested six people for dupping a person of Rs 14 crore, an official said.
Sandeep Mittal, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Cyber Crime said that the group was involved in running an online share trading scam and was misleading victims into investing in fake share trading opportunities.
“These cyber criminals formed a group via WhatsApp and created share investment apps. They said that the group had misled people into believing that they could earn up to 500 times their investments by trading shares online,” said the ADGP.
He added that the group had circulated false information suggesting that many people are making significant profits through these apps, thereby cheating the public under the guise of online share trading.
Police said that a gang member had introduced himself working with an institution called Black Rock Asset Management Business School on a WhatsApp call.
The caller, according to the cyber wing police, falsely claimed that investing in Black Rock would yield a 500 per cent profit within two months. The complainant also said that the caller had told him that the company was SEBI-approved.
The complainant was also convinced to invest with a stipulation that he must pay a 20 per cent service charge on the profits generated from the investment.
“The complainant was asked to download a mobile app through a link and subsequently invested Rs 14 crore into various bank accounts. On finding that the invested money was not being returned, the investor filed a complaint with the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal,” the Police in the statement said.
The police registered an FIR at Cyber Crime Wing Headquarters, Chennai – SCCIC (State Cyber Crime Investigation Centre), and the police retrieved the money from 13 bank accounts.
After analysing the call records and money trail, the special team of police arrested V. Subramanian, 39, from Chengalpattu and based on his confession, the other suspects were arrested.
The arrested are M. Madan (43) from Neelankarai, who owns a chit company in T. Nagar; R. Saravanapriyan (34) from Thiruvallur, who is an associate producer in the film industry; Sathish Singh (46) from Avadi, who is an associate of Saravanapriyan; Shafahed (38) from Pulianthope, who owns a shop that converts currency and D. Manikandan (30) from Madurai, who previously worked at a cine producer’s office in Chennai.
Additionally, two cryptocurrency wallet accounts were also frozen.