Hyderabad: A 21-year-old man from Mumbai was arrested for cyber fraud worth Rs 32 lakh in Hyderabad on Tuesday, December 16.
The accused was identified as Ansari Mohammed Umar Murad aka Umar. He posed as a representative of a fake investment network that used the name of the Aditya Birla Group to lure victims through social media advertisements.
The fraud was operated through WhatsApp groups, fake trading apps and websites promising high returns on stocks and IPOs.
According to the cybercrime unit of the Hyderabad police, Umar and his accomplices, Rishi Thushar Arothe, 30 and Inamdar Vinayaka Rajendar, 25, both natives of Gujarat, posed as “trade advisors”. They lured investors by promising large profits on investments and added them to WhatsApp groups.
“Umar had direct contact with a Chinese national via Telegram. On his instructions, the fraudulent money was converted into USDT cryptocurrency and transferred to crypto wallets provided by the Chinese handler. Around Rs 50 lakh was routed this way using crypto dealers and wallets,” said a press release from the Hyderabad police.
Earlier, the cybercrime police arrested Arothe and Rajendar. The gang is involved in 12 cyber fraud cases across eight states, including Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and West Bengal.
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