Nude Video Chats First, Blackmail Later: 2 Haryana Men Arrested For Cyber Fraud

The Uttar Pradesh Police on Thursday said it has arrested two Haryana-based cyber criminals who have allegedly duped several people of around Rs 10 crore.

The accused were natives of Nuh in Mewat region of Haryana, bordering Delhi, and were arrested by officials of the Cyber police station Noida led by its in-charge Reeta Yadav, it said.

Those held are Shamsher (36) and Shafi Mohammed (27), while their third partner has also been identified but yet to be arrested, the UP police said.

The police said recently a Ghaziabad-based man had approached the Cyber Cell with a complaint that Rs 1.03 lakh had been swindled from his bank account by two men who had identified themselves as "Army officers" wanting to take his flat on rent.

"The two had sent him a QR code on his mobile phone and told him to enter bank account details so that they could send him the advance payment for the flat's rental," the police said in a statement.

However, what the man next knew was that Rs 1.03 lakh had been transferred from his account to the QR code-sender's account, it added.

When the complaint was made, the matter was handed over to the Noida Cyber Police Station which investigated it and arrested two of the three accused, the police said.

"During probe, the accused confessed that they would gather data for rental properties in various cities and then pose as Army officers who had been transferred there. They would trap the property owner into believing that they are Army officers and offer lucrative advance payments through online means to further establish confidence," the police said.

Their other method for duping gullible people online was by creating social media profiles in the name of women.

"They made profiles in the name of girls and women on Facebook. Establish contact with men and trap them into intimate conversations with them. Next they would invite such contacts for nude video chats and record them for blackmailing them," the UP police said.

"The accused have confessed to have duped several people by both methods and have made around Rs 10 crore till date," the police claimed.

An FIR has been lodged against them at the Noida Cyber Police Station under relevant provisions of the law and further proceedings are underway, it added.

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