Cyber crooks cheat Chennai man of Rs 2.26 crore in fake share trading, 4 arrested

CHENNAI: The Cyber Crime wing of the city police arrested four persons for cheating a city resident of Rs 2.26 crore by encouraging him to invest in a fraudulent online share trading website.

The complainant, Kishore of T Nagar, had received a WhatsApp message to invest in a ‘highly profitable share trading website’.

Believing the words of the accused, Kishore deposited Rs 2.26 crore in multiple transactions to various bank accounts. He realised that he was scammed after he could not withdraw the money.

Based on Kishore’s complaint, the Central Crime Branch (CCB) registered a case. While investigating, it was found that fraudsters from Tirunelveli and Tenkasi – Sathyanarayanan (60), Manivel (25), Roshan (35) and Simson Chelladurai (26) – had colluded and cheated other denizens of their money.

After arresting them, it was found that they had opened multiple current accounts by producing temporary rental addresses where they set up offices, solely for the purpose of cheating the public. The team had been operating for the past two years.

Police said that they acted in time and prevented future crimes, as the accused had plans to rope in models and small-time actresses to lure more people into online trading. They have also issued a word of caution to building owners about renting out their buildings, as fraudsters misuse the rental agreement to obtain a GST number to commit an offence.

All the four accused were produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.