New Delhi:
Three youths, including a woman, were arrested for allegedly duping over 500 people of Rs 50 lakh by promising them high returns from a scheme under which they had to send bulk text messages, police said on Thursday.
Rashid Ahmed (30), Balwant (21) years) and Rakhi (21) were apprehended from Rohini yesterday following investigation into a complaint, Chhaya Sharma, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South), said.
"They had duped more than 500 people from various parts of India to the tune of more than Rs 50 lakh. They used to publish advertisements in newspapers and lured people asking them to forward 100 text messages on a daily basis and earn Rs 45,000," Sharma said.
They presented themselves as employees of a share market company.
The complainant had told police that he saw an advertisement which promised Rs 15-30,000 per month by way of issuing text messages. He contacted the number given in the advertisement and a woman asked him to deposit Rs 5,000 twice in her account.
"She remained in contact till 3-4 days and then switched off her phone. The complainant felt cheated and filed the complaint," Sharma said adding police received the input that they were residing in Sultanpuri, following which they were arrested.
Ahmed told police that he, along with his associates, was running a fake Telecom Tower Installation Company in Udaipur, Rajasthan.
"Initially, they were luring customers through advertisements that if they have any vacant plot/space, then mobile tower can be installed at the premises and can fetch Rs 1-5 lakh as advance and Rs 30-90,000 per month as rent.
"Initially, when the informer used to contact on phone they were asked to pay Rs. 3,500/- as registration fee. But his luck ran out and was arrested by the Udaipur Police in February 2011," Sharma said adding Ahmed was released from jail in March, after which he came to Delhi.
"He again started the same activities with a fresh idea of fake call center and gave fake advertisement in newspapers," she said.
A car, 33 mobile phones, 29 SIM Cards, details of 64 bank accounts, 27 passbooks and 64 ATM Cards were recovered.
Ahmed had set up a gym with the money he collected allegedly through cheating has also been identified.