Delhi police have busted an interstate gang of high-tech fraudsters and arrested four people who allegedly used to deceive gullible people under the guise of facilitating online loans.

According to Delhi police, the gang was selling cryptocurrency. They learn tactics on YouTube and come into contact with Chinese nationals by telegram.

The defendants were identified as Deepak Patwa (23), Dev Kishan (32), Suresh Singh (45) and Sunil Kumar Khatik (34). Deepak, Dev and Suresh are residents of Chittorgarh, Rajasthan while Sunil is a resident of Neemuch, Madhya Pradesh.

Police said a Mohd Nadeem Saifi filed a complaint at Cyber ​​Police Station Rohini, alleging that he received a text message on his phone stating that “LIGHT, your requested loan is approved, you can choose a limit of loan ranging from Rs 2,00,000/-, please login to app…”

The complainant followed the link and downloaded the basic information. Shortly after, he received a WhatsApp call from an international number and was asked to deposit 5% of the loan amount in advance, as per the company’s rule, which will be repaid later. After depositing a total of Rs 40,000/- in three transactions, he stopped responding on WhatsApp.

The case was registered at PS Cyber ​​Rohini and an investigation was opened by Delhi Police.

After investigation and following the money trail, it was learned that the defrauded amount had been transferred to bank accounts in Neemuch, Madhya Pradesh.

After further analysis, it was learned that more than Rs 75 lakh had been transferred to the alleged account within two days and the cryptocurrency was being purchased on various platforms from the deceived money.

The police then focused on certain suspects. Subsequently, technical surveillance was also mounted on the suspects and it was learned that they were operating from the Chittorgarh region of Rajasthan.

As a result, raids were carried out in Chittorgarh, Rajasthan and based on technical analysis as well as human intelligence, four accused were apprehended.

When questioned, the defendants revealed their identity and they were subsequently arrested.

Police recovered 15 ATM cards, seven cell phones and 27 SIM cards used in the commission of the crime. In addition, a dongle, a laptop, a tablet, six checkbooks, a BMW car, five passbooks and Rs 20,000 were also recovered.

During interrogation, the defendants revealed that they had this idea (modus operandi) of cheating on YouTube. They come into contact with Chinese nationals by telegram who were defrauding innocent people under the pretext of facilitating online loans.

The accused used to get the deceived money from different bank accounts through UPI and then convert it into cryptocurrency by buying USDT from the deceived money on a crypto exchange.

Arrested defendant Deepak Patwa was receiving a commission in cryptocurrency and later redeeming it on his account and via hawala.

After further investigation, it was also learned that the IP address of the alleged WhatsApp number belongs to China. In order to communicate with the alleged WhatsApp number, Defendant Deepak used to translate received messages from Chinese to Hindi with the help of Google Translator and also transmit his version with the help of Google Translator.

The investigation is ongoing. Other victims of the defendants are being identified.

(Only the title and image of this report may have been edited by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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