Gurugram: Fake stock trading call centre busted; 13 held
Darpan News Desk IANS, 01 Mar, 2023 12:27 PM
Gurugram, March 1 (IANS) The Cybercrime Branch of the Gurugram Police on Wednesday busted a fake stock trading call centre and arrested 13 people including two foreign nationals in this connection.
A police officer said that the fake call centre was involved in duping a man of Rs 1.6 crore by luring him to invest in the stock market, cryptocurrency, and international share market, the police said.
The complainant came in touch with the fraudsters through advertisements and pop-ups on Facebook that promised hefty returns by investing in the stock market, the police said.
The police have arrested 13 people including two from Uzbekistan and Latvia. The foreign nationals have been identified as Konstantins FIlipous -- a resident of Latvia,and Albert Saribekyan a.k.a. Peter -- a resident of Uzbekistan.
The arrested also include Gaurav Verma a.k.a. Prashant Goel, Melbin Mejan, Rakesh S. Nair a.k.a. Cameron Willson, Anvin Mathew a.k.a. Adam John, Rohinth Hari Charkravarthy a.k.a. Rajkumar, Deepanshu Verma a.k.a. Deepak Malhotra, among others.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Priyanshu Diwan said, the accused used to lure victims by putting advertisements/pop ups on Facebook, Instagram and social networking sites about getting huge returns by investing in the stock market.
These fraudsters then used to scam the victims by making them invest in fake trading websites -- Lexa Trade and Grow Line in the name of investing in the Stock Market, Crypto Currency and International Share Market by putting advertisements/ pop-ups on Facebook, Instagram and social networking sites, he said.
"These fraudsters used to make virtual accounts of victims on these websites and asked for an amount to invest. Once the victims invested some amount through them, they initially used to return some amount back as profit to gain the confidence of the victims. Later, the accused would ask them to invest bigger amounts for more profit which they never returned. Eventually, they would stop replying, and then blocked their numbers," the ACP said.
Police have taken some accused on remand to recover the amount of Rs 1.6 crore. Efforts are being made to identify other victims who have been defrauded by these scamsters, he added.
Taking umbrage at the Union Minister's new plan on how the future of Chandigarh would be decided, Badal said: "It is not in the ambit of Shekhawat to take a decision on this matter. This is a closed chapter. The UT status of Chandigarh is purely temporary pending transfer to Punjab."
Mann said in another significant decision, the state government has now decided to appoint Chief Minister Field Officers as Nodal Officers for NRIs to ensure redressal of their grievances. He said that these officers will prove to be an ideal Nodal Officer for NRIs as they will be effectively able to coordinate across departments and districts, besides having a direct communication with the Chief Minister's Office.
The passengers were later identified as Moshin Khan Saifi and Asim. Saifi was supposed to travel from Delhi to Hyderabad by Vistara Flight, whereas Asim was supposed to travel from Delhi to Dubai by Air India Express flight.
The official said that at about 4 pm, CISF staff at Terminal-3 noticed suspicious activities of a passenger in the check-in area. The passenger was later identified as Misam Raza, who was about to fly to Dubai on a SpiceJet flight. Raza was then diverted to the random checking point for a thorough checking of his luggage.
The arrested accused have been identified as Vikas Bhadana, Paras Sood, Thachang Tungshanao, Avinash, Ram Basua and Abhislash Singh, the call centre manager. While the call centre and house owner has been identified as Sachin Taneja.
A SAD delegation led by its president Sukhbir Singh Badal met Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit and handed over a memorandum stating that the Chief Minister and the Excise Minister have violated the provisions of the Official Secrets Act by making official files of the state available to Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and MP Raghav Chadha, besides private persons.
