Gandhinagar, Aug 11 (IANS) The Gujarat Police’s Cyber Centre of Excellence has arrested two men from Savarkundla in Amreli district for allegedly defrauding a complainant of around Rs 2.54 crore through a fake company advertisement on Instagram and a fraudulent online distributor scheme.
Police said bank accounts allegedly linked to the accused have surfaced in 34 cybercrime complaints across 13 states, with 11 FIRs already registered.
According to the officials, the accused initially approached the complainant through an Instagram advertisement purportedly promoting Myer Holding Limited.
The complainant was directed to the website “shopmyerinr.com” and asked to register as a distributor. He was then allegedly told to add products such as clothing, furniture, electrical and electronic goods to the company’s online platform.
The complainant was asked to deposit 80 per cent of the value of the products into different bank accounts provided by the company’s purported customer service.
In return, he was shown a 20 per cent profit in dollars in an online wallet. Police said the complainant initially continued with the process as orders began arriving in bulk.
When the complainant was unable to fulfil the peak volume of orders, the company allegedly informed him that his store would be frozen within 48 hours and claimed that the company had been taken over.
He was subsequently directed to another website, “www.storenviy.com”, with “[email protected]” provided as the domain email address.
The alleged fraud continued through a series of demands for additional payments. The complainant was asked to pay charges to unfreeze his account, repair his credit score and withdraw money from his wallet.
He was also allegedly told to pay a charge for converting dollars into rupees because the wallet balance had exceeded USD 2,50,000.
When he decided to close the online shopping store, further charges were demanded for shutting it down.
Police said the complainant ultimately deposited a total of Rs 2,53,91,066 into different bank accounts provided by the purported customer service, leading to the alleged fraud.
The investigation found that bank accounts recovered from the arrested accused had recorded financial transactions exceeding Rs 25 lakh.
Police also found 34 complaints registered against the accounts on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCCRP).
The complaints comprised four from Gujarat, one from Kerala, five from Karnataka, one from Haryana, seven from Telangana, one from Rajasthan, one from Andhra Pradesh, one from Bihar, seven from Maharashtra, one from Madhya Pradesh, one from Punjab, one from Tamil Nadu and two from West Bengal.
Of these cases, 11 FIRs have been registered in different states, police said.
The National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal allows citizens to report cybercrime and check identifiers, including bank accounts, websites, mobile numbers and email addresses, that may be linked to cybercrime.
The arrested men have been identified as Kishan Savabaliya, 30, of Savarkundla taluka of Amreli district, and Haja Rathod, 32, of Friend Society near Kanakia College in Savarkundla.
Police said Savabaliya was the account holder, while Rathod allegedly obtained details of bank accounts used in the offence and passed them on to other accused who are yet to be arrested.
Two mobile phones and a cheque book were seized from the accused.
Further investigation is underway.
–IANS
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