'Like & earn' scam: Mumbai police arrest three cybercriminals from Madhya Pradesh

Representative Image. Pic/iStock

While looking into one of the cases of the "like and earn" scam, the VP Road Police Station detained three cybercriminals from Madhya Pradesh who were giving the masterminds account information that was being utilised to siphon off the money made through cyber fraud. The true masterminds behind the widely reported cyber frauds are still at large.

The multiple police stations and cyber cell of Mumbai Police probing the much discussed like and earned cyber frauds are yet to get their hands on the cyber crooks who are using different strategies to defraud citizens across India. The accused arrested in the case are identified as Sanjay Singh Chauhan, Ranveer Singh Shekhawat and Ayush Rathod.

The cops have recovered RS 70,000 cash from the accused and during the searches of their premises 11 debit cards and 19 bank check books have been recovered. The cops have written to the bank to freeze the account which is suspected to have been utilised in transferring lakhs of fraud amounted.

"With the use of technical tools and diligent effort by our team, we were able to apprehend three Madhya Pradesh-based suspects who were vital in supplying the account numbers on which the scam sum was moved. At the very least, the arrest will break the chain, and we are continuing our efforts to find the other seamsters," said Abhinav Deshmukh, DCP Zone 02

The team led by investigating officer, Rahul Patil, reached Neemach district of Madhya Pradesh and camped there for at least three days to apprehend the accused and bring them back to the city. "We walked 15-20 kilometres as we didn't have the pin point location of the accused but with the help of local force we were able to apprehend them before they could escape," an officer privy to investigation said.

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The case

A 40 years old resident of south mumbai posted her resume on Naukri.com on January 15 in search of a job and on January 18 she received a call from unknown number claiming to be an HR of Mccan Group Asia pacific. The caller asked her to give review on certain links on Google and she can work from home to earn decent money even by liking videos and giving reviews. The complainant claimed during the process she earned few thousand and was later duped to the tune of RS 2,05,000.

Apart from this, the initial probe has revealed that the accused has similar cases registered against him in Bangalore and one case is with Mumbai east region cyber cell. "With the help of these three arrest we are tracking the masterminds of entire scam who have been using different telegram and Instagram accounts to communicate with the victims and later duping them of lakhs," a senior officer of Mumbai Police said.