The police recovered mobile phones, rubber stamps, debit cards of different bank accounts and cheque books from the accused who were based in Bengaluru.
Colaba police arrested two men from Bengaluru for allegedly defrauding a 31-year-old south Mumbai designer of Rs 2.9 lakh on the pretext of offering her an online job.
The accused have been identified as B K Suryaprakash Kemparaju, 24, and Ravikumar Ramaiyya, 26. The police have recovered mobile phones, rubber stamps, debit cards of different bank accounts and cheque books from them.
According to the police, the complainant, a resident of Colaba, is currently employed with a top home designing agency. As she was interested in earning more money by working from home, the complainant searched for such opportunities online and also signed up on some websites.
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At around 4.40 pm on May 30, the woman received a message from a person who identified herself as Meera Yadav and said she worked in the human resource department of OPA Best Influencer International.
An officer said this woman “claimed her company promotes celebrities and brands on social media platforms like Instagram to increase their popularity and followers,” adding that the “complainant was further told that they are looking to recruit more staff for such work on social media.”
To gain her trust, the fraudsters even sent a link to their company’s website and when the complainant checked it, she found that the company’s office was in Andheri. The woman explained the nature of the work and the complainant was added to a group named ‘OPA Influencer KS’ on Telegram, the police said.
“The woman had to open an Instagram link that was sent to her, hit ‘like’ on it and then share its screenshot. Her job would be complete only after she invested some money as directed by them on the Telegram group, after which they would send her the payment,” said an officer.
Accordingly on May 31, the complainant followed their instructions and transferred Rs 2,000 to an UPI ID. Subsequently, the fraudsters transferred Rs 2,500 in return. This was done to gain her trust, the police said.
In the following days, she was assigned more such jobs and in order to complete the task, the complainant had to transfer money. “In multiple transactions, she ended up sending Rs 2.9 lakh in the first week of June and got vague replies when she asked them to return her money, after which she realised that she had been duped. The woman then lodged a police complaint,” said an officer. A case of cheating was registered.
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During the probe, the officials started scrutinising details of the bank accounts to which the money was transferred and realised that the fraud was being committed from Bengaluru.
A team was then sent to Karnataka and they detained Kemparaju and Ramaiyya before taking them to Mumbai for questioning. “As they confessed to the crime, the two accused were arrested and produced before court,” said an officer.
The police soon learnt that the two had duped several people in the same manner. “We are trying to understand whether more people are involved in the racket,” said an officer.
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First published on: 19-08-2023 at 18:13 IST
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