Ahmedabad: The Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch has arrested four men for allegedly supplying bank accounts to a Dubai-linked cyber fraud network that cheated investors through fake share-trading applications, police said. Investigators say bank accounts linked to the accused figure in more than 80 cybercrime complaints registered across 15 states, and that transactions through those accounts exceeded Rs 50 crore.

Source: The420

The arrested men have been identified as Irfan Shaikh, 41, Soheb Jojawalla, 37, Shehzad Ajmerwala, 35, and Ishtiyak Riyawala, 38. Police said the arrests, made in Ahmedabad and Vadodara, followed technical surveillance and field investigation. More than 30 bank-account kits were recovered from Riyawala, according to the police.

How the alleged fraud worked

According to the police, the complainant in the case was contacted through WhatsApp and persuaded to invest through two applications, JB X One and ID-QSB, which were allegedly presented as connected to the foreign financial institution Julius Baer. The operators allegedly used a forged Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) certificate to win trust and promised returns of 5% to 20%. The investor transferred Rs 47.1 lakh through JB X One, and, after a woman posing as an ICICI Securities employee promised high returns through block trading, put in another Rs 20.8 lakh through ID-QSB — a total loss of Rs 67.9 lakh. The app showed a balance of Rs 74.3 lakh, but when he tried to withdraw, the operators allegedly demanded 20% as short-term capital gains tax and a further 4% as health and education cess.

Source: Urban Acres

Cyber Crime DCP Lavina Sinha said a woman posing as an employee of ICICI Securities had contacted the complainant through a WhatsApp group and encouraged further investment. Police allege the local network collected bank accounts from ordinary people in exchange for commissions of 10% to 15% per account kit and sent the kits to the suspected principal operators based in Dubai: Shaikh allegedly gave his account to Jojawalla, who collected accounts and passed them to Ajmerwala, who in turn transferred them to Riyawala. The allegations have not been tested in court, and police have not yet named the suspected Dubai-based operators. The investigation is continuing, and reports say the Cyber Crime Branch is preparing to inform the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department about the suspected transactions.