CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Police’s Cyber Crime police teams arrested two persons in connection with cyber frauds involving several lakhs. Both cases were registered in Madurai and Tirupur.
In the Madurai case, the accused had duped several persons through a fake Facebook ad promising a driver job at the city airport.
Lured by the offer, the complainant, a Madurai resident, had contacted the phone number mentioned in the ad and ended up paying Rs 5.58 lakh in multiple transactions to various bank accounts, as instructed. However, he did not get the job after which he realised he was cheated and filed a police complaint.
Probe revealed that a significant portion of the money was sent to an account in the name of G Ashokkumar of Salem, who would withdraw the money at an ATM at Tharamangalam regularly. On Friday, a police team went to Salem and apprehended D Prakash (32) of Tharamangalam, who is the mastermind behind creating the ad, mule accounts, and carrying out the fraudulent transactions.
Police said that Prakash runs a mobile phone service centre and had previously worked at the airport as a loading supervisor and used this experience to talk convincingly to the victims.
In another case, a Tirupur resident was cheated of Rs 25.79 lakh after being lured into investing through a fraudulent trading app named Adit Pro, promoted via a WhatsApp group discussing stock market tips and IPOs. Trusting the scammers, the victim invested the amount but received no returns. Realising he was conned, he filed a complaint with the Tirupur Cyber Crime Police Station.
Police traced the suspect’s bank account to SK Enterprises operated by R Dinooshan of Neruperrichal, Tirupur, and apprehended him. Probe revealed that Dinooshan had been recently relieved from the Perumanallur Sri Lankan refugee camp, and had provided his bank account to fraudsters in exchange for commission. His account is linked to 35 cybercrime cases across India, police said.
Both suspects were produced before a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody.