- Delhi police arrested seven individuals, including a bank employee, for defrauding an investor of ₹91 lakh ($111,000) with false promises of high returns in crypto and stock trading
- The suspects created fake bank accounts to launder the funds, and police froze accounts containing ₹46 lakh
- Advanced technical analysis led to the identification and arrest of the suspects, with ₹5.5 lakh recovered so far and further investigations ongoing
The Delhi Police have arrested seven people, including a bank employee on contract, for allegedly scamming a man out of ₹91 lakh ($111,000) by promising high returns in stock and cryptocurrency trading.
The suspects, who have been identified as Ajay, Mohit, Shankar, Partyaksh Koshar, Manish Jawla, Shrayance Pandit, and Dinesh, created fictitious bank accounts and sold them to other individuals involved in similar scams.
Hemant Tiwari, the Deputy Police Commissioner, said that the victim was persuaded to join a messaging group for stock tips and later transferred ₹91 lakh to 19 accounts. When he realized what was going on, he reported the matter to the police.
The man felt he’d been a victim of fraud and contacted the police, who opened a case under the relevant sections of the IPC and began investigating, according to the police.
Police Freeze Suspicious Account with ₹46 Lakh During Investigation
During the investigation, the police identified and froze a suspicious account with ₹46 lakh. The fraudsters tried to get it unfrozen by sending a fake email pretending to be an investigating officer.
“During the investigation, the bank froze all the suspicious accounts involved in the crime at the direction of the police. After analyzing the accounts, we found that one of them, registered in the name of Gaurav Trading, had 46 lakhs in it, and we seized it right away” the DCP said.
Fraudsters Attempt to Unfreeze Seized Account
However, a few days later, the bank manager told the police that the bank had received a notice from an email address that looked like it was from the investigating officer (IO), but it seemed like it was fake or counterfeit. The notice asked to freeze the account, according to DCP Tiwari.
“When we looked into the email in more detail, we saw that the freezing notice had been sent using ProtonMail” the officer explained. They also set up a separate team to identify and arrest the accused.
In the meantime, the Delhi Police were looking into another computer fraud case. They’d identified one account and frozen it.
The accused is said to have sent an email to the bank manager, pretending to be the investigating officer of the IFSO unit and asking him to freeze the account right away.
Technical analysis helped identify and arrest the suspects. So far, the police have recovered ₹5.5 lakh, and they’re still investigating.
