After being contacted by a man who claimed to have been conned out of 28 lakh, the Hyderabad police's cybercrime unit started looking into the situation in April.
According to the Hyderabad Police, at least 15,000 Indians were victimized by a large fraud ring that used Chinese handlers to scam them of more than 700 crores in less than a year. The money, according to the authorities, was sent from Dubai to China as well as to a Lebanese account controlled by the terrorist group Hezbollah.
Even highly compensated software specialists have lost as much as 82 lakh rupees, according to Hyderabad Police Commissioner CV Anand, who told NDTV that the problem has been reported to the Union home ministry's cybercrime section.
Anand stated, "We are informing Central agencies about this."
Anand claims that the police think that some of the money was converted to digital currency and put into a wallet under the control of Hezbollah. At least six more people, including four from Hyderabad, three from Mumbai, and two from Ahmedabad, a total of nine people have been held.
After being approached by a man who claimed to have been conned out of 28 lakh, the Hyderabad police's cyber crime squad started looking into the situation in April. They found out that part-time work combined with investments were being used to attract the victims. According to NDTV, they were paid for performing simple tasks like requesting that others "like" YouTube videos or submit reviews to Google.
The victims, who lost an average of 5–6 lakh, were approached via WhatsApp and Telegram. After finishing the first task, they made small deposits of up to 5,000 and profited greatly, sometimes even getting back double what they invested. The investors were then encouraged to make higher contributions over the course of subsequent 7-8 transactions.
The investors' purported earnings were shown in a phony window, but they couldn't access them until they had completed all the tasks. By that time, they had already made an investment of several thousand rupees.
After a man named Shiva approached the Hyderabad cyber crime department in April and alleged that he had been scammed of 28 lakh by online fraudsters, investigators found 48 bank accounts that had been formed in the names of shell corporations. At the time, the agency pegged the scam's value at 584 crores.
Further investigation revealed that the thieves had stolen an extra 128 crore. A total of 113 Indian bank accounts were involved in the fraud.
After moving through a number of accounts, the cash was converted into Bitcoin. Then it was delivered to China via Dubai.
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