Four held in pan-India online investment scam involving transactions worth Rs 7.16 crore

New Delhi, Dec 24 (PTI) Delhi Police has arrested four alleged cyber fraudsters in connection with a pan-India online investment scam and found transactions worth Rs 7.16 crore related to multiple NCRP complaints, an official said on Wednesday.

The arrests were made during the investigation of an online investment fraud case registered on November 3, where they scammed a Delhi-based person of Rs 27.2 lakh, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Aditya Gautam said.

According to the officer, the accused were part of a larger cybercrime syndicate that used high-volume mule bank accounts to route and launder fraud proceeds linked to more than 300 cybercrime complaints across the country.

Transactions worth Rs 7.16 crore have been traced in related National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) complaints, he said.

The complainant told police that he was contacted by unknown people online and was added to fake investment groups where fabricated profits were shown to him.

Police said the accused then persuaded him to download a fraudulent trading application named 'Conifer', through which he was induced to invest in a fake IPO of a logistics firm.

Believing the returns displayed on the app to be genuine, the victim transferred Rs 27.2 lakh into multiple beneficiary accounts. When he refused to invest further, his app account was frozen, police said.

Subsequent investigation revealed that the beneficiary accounts were mule accounts operated by a coordinated group based in Pune and Hyderabad. One such account, belonging to M/s Nexus-IN Broadband, was identified as a key channel used to receive and launder the cheated money, the DCP added.

Financial analysis showed that the funds were rapidly layered through multiple transfers, ATM withdrawals and further mule accounts, with no legitimate business activity linked to the entity, he said.

The arrested accused were identified as Mayur Maruti Sanas and Gaurav Jadhav, both residents of Pune, and Mohammed Yousuf Ali and Mohd Abrar Khan, from Hyderabad. Police said the accused stayed together in a hotel in Pune and actively operated mule accounts to transfer the defrauded amount further.

Investigators said the four were responsible for operating first-layer mule accounts for a larger cyber syndicate involved in investment scams across multiple states.

Police recovered electronic devices, banking instruments and digital chats that corroborated the coordinated handling of the fraud proceeds, he said.

Further investigation is underway to identify other members of the syndicate and trace additional proceeds of crime, police said. PTI SSJ SSJ OZ OZ