New Delhi: Delhi Police have unearthed a multi-crore scam involving international fraudsters, extortionists and scamsters having direct links with Chinese nationals, and were involved in extorting money at an organised level, an official said on Sunday.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (IFSO) K.P.S. Malhotra told IANS that an Indian key player in the scam among the eight persons have been arrested from different parts of the country.
“Deep technical analysis of such applications revealed that Malwares were installed in victims’ phones followed by phone hacking and access to personal data of victims’ phones led to extortion. Even women were targeted and their photos were morphed to extort them,” the senior official said.
It was officially learnt that an amount of Rs 8.25 crore, earned through cheating and extortion, was found in one of the accused’s accounts. “As many as 25 more such accounts have been identified,” DCP Malhotra said.
The application trail and money laundering trail through Cryptocurrency was linked to a mastermind who is based in China. The cheated or extorted money was being sent to China, Hong Kong and Dubai through Cryptocurrency in Chinese nationals accounts. “The identity of three Chinese nationals, who were operating from different countries, has been uncovered,” said the official.
Apart from seizing 16 debit cards, 22 cheque books and 26 passbooks, the police have also freezed more than 25 bank accounts that were having an amount of more than Rs 11 lakh.
DCP Malhotra said that it is just a ‘tip of iceberg of this multi crore scam’ as more revelations are being brought out.
The fraudsters had purchased three cars — one Ertiga, one Fortuner and one Crista Innova — from the cheated money, which was also recovered by the police.
–IANS