Thiruvananthapuram : In a significant development in the investigation into the international cyber fraud crimes, the Cyber wing of the Kerala police arrested four Malayalis in connection with a call center business operated based in Cambodia where they managed to collect Rs four crores after from various individuals by operating a fake website in the guise of opening a share market trading account through which the victims shelled out huge amounts which was translated to virtual money and transferred to accounts in Cambodia-based call centers.
As per Cyber-wing department during the past one year, the racket based in Cambodia has managed to defraud Rs 38 crores from various individuals in Kerala. A senior official within the Cyber team revealed that the amount will be much higher once the detailed questioning is completed and all the bank accounts are validated.
In the latest case, a Thiruvananthapuram native who lost two crores filed a complaint with the cyber police following which a detailed probe was conducted after collecting the Instagram chat details and thereby which the police conducted a detailed probe that led to the arrest of four individuals namely Sadiq, Shafeeq, Nandu and Sadiq Ahmed, all hailing from Kerala.
N Sunil Kumar, Cyber wing SI who spoke to News9 said that the accused are all from Kerala who befriend those individuals who are looking into invest in share market and then create a phishing site which the individuals are provided where they get to know the profit margins and other details of the amount being invested.
“The accused cyber fraudsters gain the confidence of the individuals by promising huge market gains and persuade them to invest money. The individuals who fall prey to these promises actually don’t check the authenticity of the websites and start investing money. These individuals are made to install AI-based applications in their mobile and then they manage to collect their bank details including account number, IFSC code and other details”, said Sunil Kumar.
“The money collected through these means and with the account details are been converted to virtual money and are been transferred to the accounts in Cambodia. All the accused involved in the Cambodia call centre-based crime are from Kerala”, he said.
It was following the Whatsap chat details of the accused and the victim that the probe team had confirmed that the tentacles of the cyber crime is based in abroad. It was following this that an investigation led by Thiruvananthapuram deputy commissioner Nidhin Raj and city Cyber crime police assistant commissioner CS Hari that an investigation team began the probe to uncover the details of the entire network. The police managed to find the whereabouts of the accused, tracked them and arrested them. It was following the detailed probe that the accused revealed the modus-of-operandi. The arrested individual named Sadiq is the close associate of Manu, the mastermind behind the entire network.
Police have begun a full fledged investigation to find the main accused including Manu and others who are still operating based out in South East Asian countries.
As per the cyber team, the Cambodia based cyberfraud gang is suspected to have defrauded more than 15 crores from various individuals. In the past 1 year, various individuals have lost nearly Rs 35 crores Kerala States News India: Top News India, States News, States News Headlines, Online State News India, State Politics news
