Gandhinagar, August 12: The Cyber Center of Excellence in Gujarat has arrested two individuals from Savarkundla in Amreli district. They are accused of defrauding a complainant of approximately ₹25.4 million through a fake company advertisement and an online distributor scheme on Instagram.
Authorities reported that the suspects are linked to bank accounts involved in 34 cybercrime complaints across 13 states, with 11 FIRs filed in this case.
According to officials, the accused first contacted the complainant via an Instagram advertisement promoting a company called ‘Meyer Holding Limited.’ The complainant was asked to register as a distributor and was then instructed to add products like clothing, furniture, and electronics to the company’s online platform.
The complainant was told to deposit 80% of the product prices into various bank accounts provided by the company’s alleged customer service. In return, they were shown a 20% profit in dollars in an online wallet. The police noted that as orders started pouring in, the complainant continued with this process.
When the complainant struggled to fulfill a high volume of orders, the company allegedly warned that their store would be frozen within 48 hours, claiming a takeover had occurred. The fraudulent scheme continued with demands for additional payments. The complainant was asked to pay fees to unfreeze their account, improve their credit score, and withdraw money from the wallet.
They were also charged for converting dollars to rupees, as the wallet balance exceeded $250,000. When the complainant decided to close the online shopping store, they were again asked for more fees to do so.
The police reported that the complainant deposited a total of ₹25,391,066 into various bank accounts as part of this alleged fraud. Investigations revealed that the arrested suspects had over ₹2.5 million in financial transactions linked to their accounts.
Authorities confirmed that one suspect was the account holder, while the other allegedly obtained information about the bank accounts used in the crime and connected it to other suspects who are yet to be arrested.
Two mobile phones and a checkbook were seized from the suspects, and further investigations are ongoing.
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