Cyber Crime Cell busted a financial scam that swindled investors, posing as reputed brokerage firm, Angel Broking, by adding an extra letter to the name to create a bogus website
What’s in a name? Plenty, as the Cyber Crime Cell showed after it busted a financial scam that swindled investors, posing as the reputed brokerage firm, Angel Broking, by simply adding an extra letter to the name to create a bogus website.
ADVERTISEMENT
City police have arrested one Arjit Saxena, a 26-year-old MBA graduate from Allahabad in UP, for misleading people with the website <angelbrokings.com>. The website was even designed to look similar to the original firm’s site, in order to confuse investors.
“Saxena started to promise huge returns. People thought it was the original Angel Broking, and invested their money,” said Sudhir Mahadik, senior police inspector at the Cyber Crime Cell in Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC).
Representational pic
The racketeers would send promotional messages to potential investors, promising to multiply their money, but those who transferred funds never got them back.
“As the names were similar, people got cheated,” said Prakash Warke, assistant police inspector at the Cyber Cell. Saxena was even offering a referral bonus to those who recommended the website to their friends.
A similar message was received by one of the employees at the real Angel Broking, who then notified Amit Sharma, the vice-president of Angel Broking, and an FIR was lodged.
White-collar criminals
Like Saxena, the other racketeers are also well educated and put in extensive planning in the scam.
There are two other cases of cheating registered against Saxena in Uttar Pradesh and in Karnataka, where he and his partners targeted other financial firms and defamed them with this scam. However, the mastermind is yet to be nabbed.
“Saxena would contact clients with his phone number and ask them to draw a cheque or make an NEFT transfers in the name of Satnam Traders,” said DCP (Crime Branch) Mohan Dahikar.
The arrest
Mahadik, from the cyber police, said, “We posed as clients and arrested Saxena in Allahabad. We are searching for his friend who is the main accused. Saxena is an MBA and the other members of the racket are also well educated. This was a well-planned fraud.”