Cyber police detect China connection in ‘Task’ scam, arrest six fraudsters
   Date :25-Jun-2023

Cyber police detect China connection  
 
 
Staff Reporter
The Nagpur Cyber police have detected involvement of a Chinese national in an on-line ‘task’ scam in which a Nagpur resident lost Rs 54.58 lakh to on-line fraudsters. Six fraudsters have been arrested by the Cyber Police from Mumbai, Gujarat and Rajasthan, on Saturday, in this connection, and recovered Rs eight lakh cash from their possession. The police have freezed their bank accounts having total balance of around Rs 35 lakh. Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Archit Chandak described the arrest as a major blow to the fraudsters, and claimed that around Rs 28 lakh was transferred to a Chinese national by one of the fraudsters in the form of cryptocurrency. “The amount was transferred to an on-line wallet originating from China,” he said.
 
On the complaint of Ghanshyam Narendra Govindani (32), a resident of 802, Asra Apartment, Byramji Town, the police arrested Akash Vinod Tiwari (29), Ravi Ramanth Verma (33), Santosh Rammani Meshram (39), all residents of Mumbai (East); Meet Haresh Vyas (26), a resident of Surat (Gujarat); Ankit Nihal Tater (33) and Arvind Mahaveer Sharma (24), both residents of Rajasthan. DCP Chandak said that complainant Govindani, a chemical engineer, had worked in Dubai from 2015 to 2021. While searching for a job, Govindani registered himself on on-line job sites. Eventually, he received a link from a website and joined a WhatsApp group. The fraudsters gave him tasks of movie reviews and received around Rs 1 lakh on completion of the task.
 
Subsequently, the fraudsters trapped Govindani by luring for more such tasks after paying a particular amount. After paying a total of Rs 54.50 lakh, Govindani realised the fraud and approached the Cyber police. A case under provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act was registered by the police and started investigation. The cops identified the accused persons on the basis of their bank account details and arrested them. Under the guidance of DCP Chandak, the arrest was made by Police Inspector Amit Dolas, APIs Sandip Bagul, Maruti Shelke and others.