Punjab Police on Tuesday busted a gang involved in committing online fraud with gullible people across the country.
The gang was busted by the Ludhiana Police after receiving complaints regarding online trading app fraud involving crores of rupees of the victims.
Three highly qualified cheaters including a female were arrested by the police in this connection.
"Cyber cell @Ludhiana_Police unearth a big scam that was being done by the accused in the name of online trading through the customized fraudulent app: V-Trade which involves crores of rupees defrauded from the victims", Punjab Police tweeted, adding, "Three accused arrested. Further investigation is on".
"Recovered: Cash Rs 40.62 lacs, Amount frozen in Bank accounts Rs 30.80 lacs, 5 Laptops, 6 Desktops, 7 Mobile phones, 62 gold & diamond articles, 135 Cheques worth Amount Rs 3.01 cr, several Record registers & Property documents, 2 luxury cars, 2 cash counting machines", police further tweeted.
Commissioner of Police, Ludhiana, Mandeep Singh Sidhu briefed media persons about the busting of the gang.
"Cyber Cell of Ludhiana gathered the technical details regarding this financial fraud which led to the unearthing of a big scam that was being done by the accused in the name of online trading through their customized fraudulent app called V-Trade", he said.
Cheaters used to entice victims of huge, quick profits through online trade
Explaining the modus operandi of the accused, he stated that the accused used to entice the victims of huge and quick profits through online trading, used to send them the links of their app, and provide an ID and password.
The following links for downloading the app were shared with the victims on their WhatsApp accounts.https://apps.apple.com/us/app/v-trade/id1320432862 for iOS and https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dts.vtrade(not functional anymore) for Android.
With the intention to cheat, in their minds right from the beginning, they also used to ask for two cheques from each customer before providing them an ID and password for using the app.
Then cash is received from the victim and equivalent dummy figures are shown in his account in the app, whereas, actually no trading is done on any exchange.
The victim is made to believe that he is earning a good amount by trading through the app. When the customer demands his returns, his ID and password are changed by the accused and later the customer is blackmailed to pay more or else their cheques would be used against them.
Cheaters commit fraud worth crores
In this manner, the accused duped the complainant of Rs 15 lakhs. In a similar manner their fraud tunes to crores of rupees.
Police further elaborated that the Cyber cell has worked in a very professional manner to bust this fraud which was going on for a long period and involved crores of rupees defrauded from the victims.
