Gang that conned thousands with 'online game' busted in Ghaziabad

Ghaziabad: A gang of online thugs has been busted with the arrest of eight men who allegedly duped at least Rs 50 crore from around 10,000 people promising to double their money through online gaming, police said on Thursday.

The cyber cell of Ghaziabad Police, which busted the racket, said they have seized 100 ATM cards, 37 mobile phones, five laptops, two bank passbooks, 13 cheque books, and Rs 4 lakh in cash from the gang’s possession.

Circle Officer (Indirapuram) Abhay Kumar Mishra said the accused were arrested Wednesday afternoon from Shaktikhand area of the city as part of ‘Operation 420’ drive launched by the Ghaziabad police.

Mishra said that the gang lured people with an offer to double their money through online games and sent bulk messages with a link to download the game app. ”In the next step, the gang would convince the targets to send money into bank accounts opened with forged identities,” he said.

“A game id was then provided to these people through SMS as well as over Whatsapp. A link for a mobile e-wallet was also shared with them for making the payments,” he said. ”Once anyone transferred an amount equal to or more than Rs 50,000, the gang would block that wallet’s id, leaving the person duped,” the officer said.

The Ghaziabad Police estimated that the gang has so far duped around 10,000 people to the tune of over Rs 50 crore, according to an official statement.

Those arrested have been identified as Neeraj Kumar (43), Awadhesh Kumar (25), Haridev Sahai (28), Sushant Sahai (22), Tara Kant (29), Deependra Sharma (20), Pradeep Kumar (21), and Kailash Kumar Gupta (21), police said.

Five accused hail from Nepal, two are from Bihar, and one is from Jharkhand, the police added.