Mumbai: Three men who allegedly opened 70 fictitious bank accounts to facilitate an online share trading scam in which more than 140 people across the country lost several crores, have been nabbed by city police’s cyber cell.
Mumbai police’s north cyber cell arrested Sheshnath alias Ganesh Pandey (47), Stish Punamia (47) and Rahul Bacchan (37).
All three are history sheeters, who in the past had been arrested by Mira Road, Thane, Kasturba Marg and Worli police stations. Police seized several forged documents, credit and ATM cards, and other material from them.
The three were arrested after their names cropped up in an investigation into 70 fictitious bank accounts where the siphoned funds from several victims were parked.
The investigation began in Feb after a retired woman lodged a complaint that some cyber fraudsters impersonated share trading experts and lured her to invest in “share trading”. They made her join a share trading group where there were several fake members who praised the admins for growing their profits. They painted a rosy picture and eventually defrauded her.
The fraudsters sent her various links and, under the pretext of buying shares, asked her to transfer Rs 2.85 crore into various accounts and siphoned off the entire amount.
“While her profits reflected online, when she tried to withdraw the funds, she was unable to do so. When she contacted them, they asked her to deposit more money to get the amount defrosted. When she realised that she was duped, she lodged a complaint and an FIR was registered,” said Suvarna Shinde, senior inspector of north region.
During the course of the investigation into the money trail, police reached a few bank accounts only to learn that the accused had already withdrawn the victim’s money within minutes of her transferring it. On checking these accounts, police found numerous entries from across India. Further inquiries revealed that those who transferred the money into these accounts were victims of cyber fraud. The three accused received huge commissions from their mentors for helping them open 70 fictitious accounts in various banks.
The accused also cheated several persons by promising them cheap houses and flats under various govt schemes, said DCP (crime branch) Datta Nalawade.
