Face2News/Chandigarh

As per record of reported complaints in Police Station Cyber Crime, it came to light that from last few months, total 181 complaints of Work from Home (task of liking/ subscription of youtube channels, share a& like of social media post)received in which Rs. 39734543/- defrauded from the innocent people of Chandigarh.

Prepaid task scams are the types of scam that involves tricking victims into paying for a fake job opportunity on Telegram/Whatsapp.

These scams often target vulnerable individuals who are in need of money and are looking for work/ Part time work. Victimslost money after falling prey to cyber fraudsters who lured them through Telegram messaging platform offering part-time jobs i.e. Youtube likes/, SubscribtionYoutube Channels, Likes& Sharing on Social Media Applications.

Modus Operandi : In the beginning, Victim received message through Whatsapp/Telegram regarding some online part time Job and any link or whatsapp number also given in that message by fraudster. After click on link or contact to given whatsapp number, fraudsters ask the victim to join the groups on Telegram &Whatsapp, in which 5 to 10 of their associates are already in the group,they assure the fellow victim that the group is genuine by showing their huge income/Profit.

In the beginning, Victim received message through Whatsapp/Telegram regarding some online part time Job and any link or whatsapp number also given in that message by fraudster. After click on link or contact to given whatsapp number, fraudsters ask the victim to join the groups on Telegram &Whatsapp, in which 5 to 10 of their associates are already in the group,they assure the fellow victim that the group is genuine by showing their huge income/Profit.

After creation of account on their website, there are big task are given on website and they allure the fellow victim to invest money for thebig task to earn more money. After their allurement fellow victimdeposit huge amount in their accounts, which is provided by them through Telegram/Whatsapp and victim’s earned money also shown on their website account but they can’t withdraw the earned amount.

They continuously ask/ allure victim to deposit more money to earn more money and to withdraw their earned money.As the investment amount becomes larger, they quit the victim from the task and drops from the group, dump the website. When victim contact to them to withdraw his money, they ask the victim to invest more money in a new group for a new task.

Establishment of fake trading companies, open the bank accounts :-During investigation, it has come to light that CA, Bank employees mostly IDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, YES Banks etc.& Advocates are also involved in the work from home scam. They set up their office at a particular place, to open fake trading firms/ companies and to open their current bank accounts in different banks. The fraudsters search needy/ poor people from their sources to open fake firms and bank accounts on their namesto transfer the cheated amount through work from home task scam. They also obtained the

mobile numbers on their names and register the same mobile numbers in the bank accounts which are open on their names for cheating purpose.

SMS Remote Applications

After opening the accounts fraudsters provide the account details through Telegram/ Whatsapp to their bosses who are in Dubai, China, Indonesia, Pakistan and they sent them link of v5smsf, Bee, SmsEye2, Poker (These applications are used to take the access of SMS’s of mobile phones) and ask to install these applications in those mobile phones, which are registered in alleged bank accounts, after installation he provide an code to enter in the application to take the access of SMS’s of the mobile for the purpose of cheating. When the huge amount collected from the work from home scam then the cheated amount is invested in crypto currency (USDT, Bitcoins,) and sent to Dubai, China, Indonesia, Pakistan by various digital wallets.

Involvement of Banks:- During investigation it has also come to light thattotal 24 bank accounts are used to cheat in three cases in which accused are arrested and transactions of approaxRs. 150 Crores are unearthed in these accounts. Further money trail/ financial links may be give volume of amount on anhiger scale.Mainly bank accounts of YES Bank, ICICI Bank, IDFC Bank, Ujjaval Small Finance bank are used for cheating in the name of work from home scam. As transactions of Rs. 50000000/- per day can be done by using the current accounts of these banks.Fraudster open the bank accounts on fake documents and also register the mobile numbers in these accounts which are also obtained through fake documents.

Money Laundering, Import Export firms:-

During investigation it has also found that arrested person are involved in money laundering, HawalaKarobar. These people open shell import export trading companies for the purpose of cheating and money laundering.

IP Details of Telegram/ Whatsappaccounts :- Details of alleged Telegram groups are also obtained and according to their IP, details same are found to belong to Dubai, China, Indonesia, Pakistan.

Involvement of20 faketrading firms/ companies: During investigation,record of following trading firms/ companies found. Bank accounts in different banks are open on their names :-

SACHIN TRADING COMPANY,  GOPAL TRADING,  SAHIL TRADERS ,  SARIF ENTERPRISES,  SONU TRADING COMPANY,  APEX ENTERPRISES,  ULTIMATE TRADING COMPANY, SOM ESTATE AGENCY (MOBILE NO LINKED WITH ACCOUNT ACTIVE AT DUBAI),  BALAJI CATERING SERVICE,  JANDANI HARDWARE,  URVI INTERPRISES,  WHITE MOON INTERNATIONAL, RAINBOW IMPEX ,  SUNSHINE TRADING,  DYNASTY WORLDTRADE,  MAHADEV TRADING,  GLOBAL WORLD TRADE.  QUALITY WORLD TRADE,  SINGH TRADERS SAP EXPOTRADE,  DEPRAVO INTERNATIONAL PRIVATE LIMITED

In a major breakthrough in above said Work from Home Scam, under the leadership of Sh. KetanBansal, IPS, SP-Cyber, UT, Chandigarh and guidance of Sh. A Venkatesh, DSP/Cyber Crime& IT UT, Chandigarh and supervision of Inspector Sh. Ranjit Singh SHO Police Station-Cyber Crime, Sec-17, Chandigarh, got major success to arrest Nine (09) accused from Delhi NCR, Rajasthan, Haryana area.

Details of Cases in which accused are arrested :- 

Case No. 1: FIR No. 69 dated 29.06.2023 U/S 420,467,468,471,120B IPC PS-CC

The above said case has been registered on the complaint of Kawaljeet Singh from Chandigarh. In which he reported that he has been robbed of almost Rs. 39,53,825/- lakhs by a telegram group. he received a whatsapp message from virtual number regarding part time online job of liking the youtube videos, then they paid him some amount for liking videos to him and the fraudster asked him to join telegram group. They guided him to invest amount for big task of like of youtube channel, social media post and earn more money.After giving of Rs. 39,53,825/-complainant understand that, it was a scam.

After analysis of record, upon secret information following alleged has been arrested

KNOW THE ACCUSED:  Sandeep Kumar Sangwan S/o DharambirSangwan,  BPO Kheribura, PS-Badhra The-CharkiDadri. Haryana 28 Years M.Com,  Manish Rawat S/o Bharat Singh Rawat R/o D-7/107- B, Dayalpur PS-KhajuriKhas North East Delhi 33 Years 12th, . Rakesh@ Rinku S/o BalramVill-Jewali PO & PS- Badra, Distt-CharkhiDadri 28 Years B.A

Recovery:  Mobile Phones 14 Mobile Phones, Bank accounts kits 08, Flex boards of shell trading companies 05, Stamps of shell firms 07

Case No. 2 : FIR No. 78 dated 15.7.2023 U/S 420, 120B IPC PS-CC

This case has been registered on the compliant of a lady from Chandigarh. In which she reported that on 7th July she received a whatsapp message from number an virtual number to invest in Amazon advertisement of India by clicking on a telegram Link. The same day she invested Rs. 1000/- &Rs. 3000/- and she got received some profit of around Rs. 2800/. After that she joined an Telegram group and she was allured to deposit money to achieve big task and to earn more money. Later she came to know that she was defrauded on the pretext of investment and earn profit on telegram. Total cheated amount of Rs. 45,40,233/-

After analysis of record, upon secret information following alleged has been arrested: Aditya Sharma S/o Manish Sharma R/o # 251 ward no. 10. Sita Ram Jaju Nagar Neemach (MP) 20 Years 12th,  Mahesh Sharma S/o FatehLal R/o # 251 ward no. 10. Sita Ram Jaju Nagar Neemach (MP) 34 Years 12th ,  Raj Kumar Narang R/o # 64B PG Block Janakpuri , New Delhi 47 Years 12th, Pratik Maingi S/o DharambirMaingi R/o G-8/3 Vikaspuri 35 Years 12th, Mahesh Kumar S/o NarainDass, # 91 D, Kalka Ji, Delhi 35 Years 12th 

Recovery: 10 Mobile Phones,  Bank Cheque Book 02,  SIM Cards 06,  Stamps 11,  Bounce Cheques 02 

Case 3:  FIR No. 70 dated 1.7.2023 U/S 419, 420, 467, 468, 471, 120B IPC PS-CC

Above said case has been registered on the complaint of a lady from Chandigarh. In which she stated that she received random whatsapp message from virtual number and the sender imposed herself as SagrikaYadav from Zebra techies Solution India Pvt. Ltd. She offered her a part time position as a work from home opportunity.

The work was just to like and subscribe the Youtube videos for that they sent an link. After liking their videos they send her Rs. 210/- twice and Rs. 90/- once and thereby mechant task are also available with prepayment. For merchant task she paid Rs. 1000/-, 5000/- as initial amount and this was dome under a telegram group. She was asked to create account on www.bitfinex.com which is multi trading exchange company website, during creation of account on said website she made an mistake, due to her mistake members of their group was suffering as they are no able to work and they are not getting the money back. She choose to pay Rs. 190000/- on humanity ground. After their allurement for task she paid Rs. 762000/-.

After analysis of record, upon secret information following alleged has been arrested :- Vishal verma S/0 Suresh Kumar Verma, # 431, SarveshwarMahadevMandirkepeeche, Gali no 1, Jodhpur. 34 Years B.A.