3 of online gang members held in Una

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Dharamsala, February 9

The Una police have arrested three persons of a gang who were committing online fraud through online shopping websites.

SP, Una, Arjit Sen, talking to The Tribune, said the police received a complaint from a victim that she had visited an online shopping website to purchase some items. Shortly, she received a call from a number claiming to be working for the company.

The person told the victim that since she had shopped from this website, she had also won a lottery in which she had won an SUV. The victim was then sent a link and asked to register on a website by depositing Rs 2,000 in a bank account as mentioned in the link.

The victim fell in the trap and within a few months lost Rs 29 lakh.

The SP said the police found out that two accounts given to the victim belonged to two persons in West Bengal. A police team visited West Bengal and found that one of the persons did a menial job at the Howrah railway station and the other was a college student.

Both individuals had sold their accounts to a person who was using these to further transfer money in several current accounts of businesses, mostly in Gujarat and Bihar.

The team also obtained a number associated with one of the several suspect accounts. After investigating the mobile numbers from which the victim had received calls, the team found one suspect number that belonged to Shankar Kumar from Bihar.

These three persons were members of an organised crime syndicate. They used to obtain a list of mobile numbers and shopping details of customers, who usually visit online shopping websites. Then a team was engaged to call these victims through mobile sims that are usually destroyed after calling. They used to withdraw cash from several accounts. These teams worked separately and usually employs low educated unemployed youth, who are working in lieu of monthly wages, the SP said.

The arrested persons include Shankar Kumar of Katar Dhee village, Nalanda, Bihar, Shanti Swaroop Shastri of Navada, Bihar, Chandan Kumar of Gulapar, Shekpura, Bihar.

Around Rs 7.5 lakh has been reclaimed by the police from the accounts that were frozen. One laptop, five mobile phones and Rs 1.5 lakh were recovered from the accused.