Delhi Police on Friday busted a gang that allegedly trapped people on social media platforms and duped them of money on the pretext of sending gifts.
As per information shared by police, a woman named Ritu lodged a complaint in Rani Bagh police station, wherein she alleged that she got in friendship with a person named Jeams of UK through online chatting on a social media platform.
The complainant claimed that Jeams lured her to pay his agent an amount of Rs 60,000 on the pretext of sending gifts that would require the said amount for customs clearance. However, even when she paid the sum, no goods were sent to her.
During the investigation conducted by the police, it surfaced that the complainant had transferred the amount to the account in name of a resident of the Nangloi area in Delhi named Damodar. However, upon verification, it was found that the address associated with the account was a fake one.
After conducting further investigation and on the basis of technical and human inputs, the police tracked Damodar (28) and arrested him from his residence in the Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh. Damodar's accomplice Rehmat Khan (34) was also arrested from Bareilly.
As per the information divulged by the accused, the gang employed the strategy of creating a fake profile in fictional names and details of foreign nationals on social media and getting into a friendly chat with random people.
After a few days of chat, the accused would promise to send some gift items to the social media friend and the victim receives a call from the fictitious customs clearing agent (another member of the gang) who claims to get the gift package released if an amount of customs duty is paid.
The alleged bank account in the case was found to have had transactions of around Rs 31,20,000 from various parts of the country since July 21 and presently there was a nil balance in it. The said account was also involved in a case of Kerala and on the request of Kerala Police, it has been barred from further transactions.
Two other members of the gang and co-accused namely Riyasat and Sompal are currently absconding. Further investigation and efforts to nab the remaining accused are underway.
( With inputs from ANI )
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