A 32-year-old man was arrested from Ghaziabad for allegedly cheating over 2,500 people on the pretext of getting them mobile phones on EMI (monthly installments) through fake websites, the police said today.
Accused Jitender Singh disclosed to the police that he along with his associates - Praveen Kumar and Rajat Shukla - indulged in cheating people by offering them to provide mobile phones on easy monthly installments.
However, after taking a small amount as down payment from them, they would vanish, police said, adding Jitender Singh confessed to have cheated over 2,500 people across the country this way.
The police said that efforts are being made to trace Jitender Singh's associates Praveen Kumar and Rajat Shukla.
The matter came to notice when a probe was initiated on January 9 on the complaint of one Irfan Pathan, who alleged that in December last year, he wanted to buy a mobile phone and came across a website - www.mobilityworld.in - which offered them on EMIs at cheap rates, the police said.
In order to make a purchase, he was asked to deposit Rs 1,499 by Virtual Private Address (VPA) "paymobile@upi".
He was then contacted by the executives of the website who asked him to deposit further money for getting the mobile phone delivered.
He deposited Rs. 5,998 in three transactions on VPA provided by the executive of the website. But he neither got any mobile phone nor did they return his money, according to the complainant.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) RP Meena said that during the course of the investigation, call details of the mobile numbers mentioned on the website and those provided by the complainant were obtained.
On analysis of the Call Detail Record, it was found that one of the mobile numbers used by the accused was registered on the name of Rajat Shukla.
On analysing the details of VPA 'paymobile@upi', it was found that it was linked to a bank account of Rajat Shukla.
However, the money from the said bank account used to be immediately credited into Jitender Singh's account, he said.
Jitender Singh was arrested later from his home in Ghaziabad on Tuesday and two mobile phones used by him in commission of crime were sized, he added.
During interrogation, he disclosed that in last two years, he along with his associates have cheated people through three fake websites created by them, the police said.
They shifted their setup and domain name of the websites to avoid detection and took money through Virtual Private address to make detection difficult, they added.
"They often took small amounts of Rs 1,999 to Rs 7,999 so that the victim would not approach the police," the DCP said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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