Rourkela: Cyber crime gang duping people with fake stock market app busted; 6 held

Rourkela: The Rourkela police have busted an international cyber crime syndicate which used to dupe people with fake stock market application, said Rourkela SP Mitrabhanu Mahapatra at a press conference here, today.

As per police sources, a case in this regard was registered under Sections 419, 420, 465, 467, 471 and 120B of the IPC and 66C/ 66D of the IT Act on the basis of a complaint filed by a senior officer of Central Government regarding fraud to the tune of Rs 67.70 lakh.

As the matter was complex and involved several agencies, the team of investigators took the technical assistance of Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center (14C) of MHA and State Crime Branch. During the course of investigation, the police arrested six persons and seized various incriminating materials from their possession.

Later, over 210 complaints from across India were identified as per the data from JCCT Management Information System (JMIS) of 14C, MHA, majorly from Bihar, Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, NCT of Delhi, Kerala, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

Prime accused Ujjwal of Bhilai, Chhattisgarh along with his acquaintance Pankaj Rao of the same area went to Cambodia to supply 200 Indian SIM cards and mule rented bank accounts to foreign nationals. The SIM cards were procured in the name of Sandeep Jain from Indian telecom operators. After that, the accused persons created a fake mobile application in the name of Indira Securities. The trading app displayed stock prices in real time and thereby did not create any suspicion, the police said in a release.

The accused persons with their operatives stationed in Cambodia contacted the Indian people and motivated them to invest in stocks while fake returns were shown in the app. After giving initial returns, the app stopped pay-out. This scam involves use of mule accounts, digital advertisements, money laundering and cross border criminal syndicate. Data from banks regarding IP addresses of log-in of the accounts has been shown to be from Cambodia and Abu Dhabi. The accused were involved in illegal transfer of funds, the police said.

“We have the data of the fake Indian SIM cards that are operational in Cambodia for the scam. The service providers have been requested to take necessary action. We have requested banks and crypto operators to share technical insights into the case. We are in the process of informing different law enforcement agencies of the country regarding this crime. We have identified the ringleader of this international cyber-fraud syndicate, who is a foreign national. Necessary steps will be taken at appropriate level,” the official said.