The Cyber Cell of Pimpri-Chinchwad Police has apprehended five cunning fraudsters involved in an online scam. These individuals made false promises of profitable investment opportunities in stock exchanges to swindle people. The police revealed that these culprits worked for an individual based in Hong Kong and have defrauded hundreds of individuals, accumulating millions of rupees.
It was uncovered that the fraudsters deceived a resident of the Pimpri-Chinchwad area for over 4 crore rupees using cryptocurrencies and then transferred the funds to Hong Kong. The arrested individuals are identified as Junaid Mukhtar Qureshi, Salman Mansoor Shaikh, Abdul Aziz Ansari, Akif Anwar Arif, and Anwar Khan (Taufik Gaffar Shaikh). Seized from their possession were seven mobile phones, a cash counting machine, eight debit cards, 12 chequebooks, a passbook, and seven lakh rupees in cash.
Over $5.4M Scammed through Cryptocurrency
The victim reported that she saw an advertisement on Instagram about stock market classes and investment opportunities. Following the instructions led her to a WhatsApp group. An unknown person then sent her a form for withdrawing from an institutional demat account. Subsequently, the accused directed her to deposit 31 lakh 60 thousand rupees into various bank accounts for purchasing IPOs of new companies entering the stock market.
Five Suspects Arrested by Police
When the victim demanded her money back, the fraudsters asked for an additional four lakh rupees. This led her to file a complaint with the Cyber Cell. The investigation by the police swiftly resulted in the arrest of the five suspects. The police are now interrogating them to uncover information about other cases.
