Navi Mumbai police bust trading fraud with links to China, Cambodia; 7 held

As a result of this breakthrough, the cyber police have frozen 118 bank accounts across various states in India, securing a total amount of ₹32.5 lakh linked to the fraudulent transactions, they said.

The fraudsters targeted several victims between September 2 and October 8, luring them into sending money to multiple bank accounts after promising high profits in share market trading through investment advertisements on various social media platforms.

They used a fake application to show a large, but virtual, profit on the invested amount, luring the victims to invest larger sums based on the false profit display. The fraudsters later refused to return the victims’ original investment, according to the police.

The cyber police team initially arrested Suresh Talekar (29) and his accomplice Vikas Awhad (30) from Pune.

“Further investigation of a third accused (not arrested), indicated that he had met three unknown Hindi-speaking individuals, suspected to be from another state, at a hotel in Mahape, Navi Mumbai, to hand over SIM cards linked to certain bank accounts,” the release said.

The police inspected 35 to 40 lodges and hotels across Mahape, Sanpada, Koparkhairane, APMC, Vashi areas in Navi Mumbai.

They nabbed five persons from a hotel in Vashi and arrested them in connection with the crime, the release said without identifying them.

The main role of the accused was to use an application to forward the one-time passwords (OTPs) generated by current bank account transactions to their handlers abroad, they said.

The police appealed to people to be careful of advertisements for investment in the stock market on social media and not succumb to the temptation of making high profits.