3 cyber fraud rackets busted, 9 held; scams over Rs 31 Lakh unearthed

New Delhi: A DRDO employee losing over Rs 15.7 lakh in a work-from-home, task-based investment scam led Delhi Police to uncover a cyber fraud syndicate and arrest three accused, including two students.

The arrests were made from Haryana and Rajasthan during an interstate operation.

According to police, the victim was contacted through social media by fraudsters posing as representatives of a company offering work-from-home opportunities related to property rental ratings and leasing tasks. After being added to a group and receiving small initial returns, he was persuaded to invest larger sums in so-called “charter leases” and “bonus tasks”.

When he later attempted to withdraw the money, the fraudsters demanded an additional payment as a penalty. Realising he had been cheated, he approached the cops.

Police arrested Parikshit (23), from Hisar, Haryana, Sandeep Sain (30), from Karnal, Haryana and Sachin Jhakkar (25), a student from Rajasthan. The accused allegedly acted as account holders and facilitators for routing the cheated funds.

In a separate case, police arrested three more people for allegedly duping a resident of northwest Delhi’s Shalimar Bagh of around Rs 15.3 lakh through a credit card fraud.

Police said the resident was contacted by fraudsters posing as bank representatives who offered to increase his credit card limit. The accused allegedly gained his trust and convinced him to share sensitive banking details, after which unauthorised transactions were carried out from his account.

During the investigation, police tracked the money trail to mule accounts and arrested Kundan, 34, Vipin Kumar, 23 and Naveen, 36, from Najafgarh and Dwarka of southwest Delhi.

In a third incident, police busted an interstate cyber fraud module operating fake helicopter booking websites and arrested three accused from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

The gang allegedly cheated a resident of south Delhi Rs 20,328 through fake IRCTC portals offering helicopter bookings and promoted the websites through online advertisements. Investigation revealed links to nearly 30 cybercrime complaints across multiple states.

In total, Delhi Police has arrested nine accused across the three cases and uncovered frauds amounting to over Rs 31.2 lakh.