Four from Mys among five held over job fraud

Mangaluru: Konaje police arrested five persons involved in a cybercrime operation that deceived an individual with a fraudulent part-time employment opportunity. The accused are Mohammad Shariq, 37, Rajeev Nagar; Syed Mahmood, 28, Mubarak Mohalla; Syed Shoaib, 30, Rajeev Nagar; Moysin Ahmed Khan, 45, Nehru Nagar, all in Mysuru; and Mohammad Azam, 26, from Vivek Nagar, Bengaluru.
City police commissioner Anupam Agrawal said that on July 21, the complainant received a WhatsApp message about a part-time job. The message included a link on Telegram app, which the complainant was asked to open. Upon opening Telegram and enquiring about the job, a video was sent. The complainant was asked to send a screenshot after watching it. Soon after the complainant sent the screenshot, Rs 130 was deposited into his bank account. Later, the complainant was told that the video was incorrect and was sent another Telegram link to correct it. Upon opening the link, the accused asked the complainant to deposit Rs 1,000. The complainant was gradually deceived into transferring Rs 28,18,065 to various accounts provided by the accused, under the promise of receiving more money, the commissioner said. A complaint was filed at the Konaje police station under the IT Act, the top cop added.
Four accused from Udayagiri, Mysuru, and one from Neelasandra, Bengaluru, were arrested after an investigation led by police inspector Rajendra B, based on bank account transactions and other information.
The investigation also revealed that the accused traded bank accounts (including passbook, cheque book, ATM card, and the SIM card linked to the bank account) to earn more money. It was also discovered that many people in Mysuru's Nehru Nagar, Shantinagar, Rajiv Nagar, and Neelasandra in Bengaluru sold their bank accounts for money in connection with various cyberfrauds, the commissioner said.
A team led by Konaje police inspector Rajendra B, sub-inspectors Puneeth Gaonkar, Ashoka, and staff succeeded in arresting the accused based on the directions of Agrawal, DCPs Sidharth Goyal and BP Dinesh Kumar, and ACP Dhanya N Nayak.