Chennai, Nov 7 (IANS): Three people were arrested on Thursday on the charges of defrauding a man of Rs 92 lakh, Tamil Nadu Cyber Crime Branch Police said.
The arrested individuals were identified as Nitish Kumar and Chandrashekhar from Namakkal, and Suresh from Coimbatore.
Police officials revealed that in the past too, the suspects had been involved in similar criminal activities.
The man was lured by a Facebook advertisement promoting a high-profit online trading scheme.
Trusting the scheme, he transferred funds to multiple accounts. However, when he failed to receive the promised returns, he realised he had been deceived and lodged a complaint with the Madurai Cyber Crime Branch Police.
Following the complaint, a Cyber Crime team launched an investigation, freezing the accounts of the accused.
The police discovered that the fraudsters had opened an account under the name 'Murugan Traders', with Nitish listed as the proprietor.
The suspects reportedly received large commissions, amounting to lakhs, for each Rs 1 crore transaction they processed.
The Cyber Crime team, led by Sub Inspector Priya Senthilkumar, travelled to Namakkal to arrest the accused.
During the arrest, the police recovered several SIM cards, bank passbooks, and ATM cards from the suspects. It was found that approximately Rs 3 crore in fraudulent transactions had occurred through the frozen accounts.
The investigation further revealed that these criminals had been involved in similar fraudulent schemes across multiple states, including Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Nagaland, and Odisha.
The suspects had also committed similar offences in various locations within Tamil Nadu.
In a related incident, the Madurai District Cyber Crime Police recently arrested three men for defrauding another Madurai resident of Rs 1.32 crore on the pretext of providing a part-time job.
Upon realising the scam, the victim filed a complaint, leading to the arrest of K. Vadivelu, E. Jayaraman, and K. Ramalingam.
Investigations revealed that the suspects, operating through an IndusInd Bank account, had been involved in similar frauds in Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tripura, Telangana, Chandigarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh.
The police confiscated mobile phones, laptops, SIM cards, bank passbooks, and ATM cards from the suspects, and froze an account containing approximately Rs 2.18 crore.
The District Police have advised the public to be vigilant and immediately report online fraud to the toll-free number 1930.