Bengaluru: Arrest in theft case blows lid off elaborate OLX scam

Bengaluru: The arrest of a man by Vidyaranya police has revealed an elaborate con of fleecing potential buyers and sellers on reselling platform OLX.

Police said Manjunath alias OLX Manju (30) was arrested for theft and 5 mobile phones,  a fake vehicle number plate, and stolen vehicles including 3 cars, and a bike were seized from him.

Police said Manju was arrested in connection with the theft of a bike of Adarsh, a resident of Vidyaranyapura recently. The accused contacted Adarsh showing interest in the bike advertised on OLX. He took the bike for a test ride and fled from the spot.

During the questioning, the police got wind of the elaborate scam the accused ran on OLX.

Modus Operandi

According to police, Manju targeted persons who advertised vehicles for sale on OLX. To evade arrest he had gotten several SIM cards using the IDs of security guards and unemployed youth.

Manju introduced himself as a used vehicle dealer and promised to get better prices for their vehicles. He also got the vehicle documents for the vehicles after paying a token advance and got the owners to delete their ads from OLX and placed a new ad in its place using fake credentials of the owners.

He would take money from the customers who contacted him on the fake OLX profile and never return it.

The investigation revealed that he had been involved in scamming OLX customers for a while. As many as 9 cheating cases registered at Vidyaranyapura, Jayanagar, Mahadeshwar, Konanakunte, Begur, and Rajarajeshwari Nagar, among others, have been solved, police said.