Duo lures gullible into online tasks, sells off bank details abroad; held
His accomplice has also been arrested.
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CHENNAI: A City man who forced his friends and family to open bank accounts and then sold the bank account kits to scamsters based in Hong Kong for a Commission has been arrested by the Cyber Crime Wing of City Police as part of a recent online part-time job fraud.
His accomplice has also been arrested.
During the course of investigations in a complaint by a woman from Adyar who lost over Rs 12 lakh by falling into the trap of a 'part-time online job', Cyber Crime officials found that the victim's money were routed through some local bank accounts before they were transferred out to an offshore account.
In online part-time job scams, victims are lured by Whatsapp and telegram messages where they are offered simple tasks such as liking, subscribing to YouTube videos, writing Google reviews, and hotel and travel reviews among others.
"Initially the victims receive money ranging from Rs.150 to Rs.1,000/- for completion of tasks. This motivates them to get involved more. Then they are slowly moved to a bigger telegram group with more than 50 participants. There, the victims are asked to pay a subscription for getting tasks which will pay them more," an official said.
The fraudsters then post fake screenshots of people earning more money and then give time-bound tasks and make the victims fail in such tasks.
Using this, the fraudsters demand for penalty payment by freezing the amount earned.
In the recent case, the money trail led police to M Mohammed Illiyas (38) of Manali who further led police to A Tamil Selvam (44) who sold the bank account kits to a person in Hong Kong.
Tamil Selvam sold more than five bank accounts to a person in Hong Kong, who identifies himself as 'Tiger', an official said.
"For every account, Tamil Selvam was paid Rs 80,000 at a location communicated through Telegram by Tiger. We are not even sure if it's really a person based in Hong Kong or his real name as of now," the official added.
Tamil Selvam and Illiyas are cab drivers and the agents had got in touch with Tamil Selvam during a cab ride, police investigations revealed.
Tamil Selvam and Illiyas have been remanded to judicial custody. City Police have thus far received 112 similar complaints and appealed to the public to be aware of such scams. In case of queries, the Public shall contact the Cyber Crime Helpline number 1930 or register their complaint in the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal - www.cybercrime.gov.in.