Fake scheme of work from home busted, 2 held

New Delhi, March 19 (IANS) Delhi Police said on Sunday that they have busted a fake scheme of work from home with the arrest of two accused who cheated a number of gullible persons.

DCP of Outer Delhi, Harender Kumar Singh, said that the accused have been identified as Ankit Rathi and Sudhir Kumar.

"The fraudsters lured victims with lucrative returns of 30 per cent on the amount invested. As many as Rs 64 Lakh was deposited in a bank account in one day before it was freezed by the bank," Singh said.

The police said that a person named Harin Bansal had lodged a complaint in this respect alleging that he was cheated to the tune of Rs 9,32,000 by the accused.

Bansal claimed that he was surfing Instagram when he came across a post said 'earn huge money daily working from home'. He clicked on the post and was taken to a WhatsApp number.

"He was then asked to register on a website through a link that was given to him. The fraudsters said that he has to complete the tasks given to him on the website, which was his job. They told him that he will get commission along with the original amount after completing the tasks given to him. Initially he deposited a small amount and was able to withdraw his money along with the commission earned from his bank account. Later when he invested bigger amounts, he never got back the money," the police said.

Bansal said the money was sought from him on the pretext of government tax, the police said.

The police then found that money was being transferred to nine different bank accounts one of which belonged to Ankit Rathi, a resident of Baghpat. Immediately, a police team was sent there, which found that Rathi had fled to Haridwar. He was later nabbed from Haridwar.

"Rathi told us that his friend Sudhir Kumar had told him that Rs 10,000 daily could be earned by opening bank accounts and handing them over to another person who would operate an online betting website. Sudhir has also been arrested by the police," the police said.

Sudhir disclosed that once he was surfing Facebook when he saw a post regarding earning money by letting someone else access his account. He was told that they provide bank accounts to online betting websites.

"They used to send links to their victims through Telegram/WhatsApp to create an account on a fake website operated by them. The accused initially gave high returns on small investment of Rs 100 to Rs 1,000. The return was above 30 per cent which could be remitted to the bank account of the victims," the police said.