Police recovered seven mobile phones and six debit and credit cards from the accused.
Three persons were arrested from a five-star hotel in Mumbai for allegedly cheating a businessman to the tune of Rs 80 lakh under the pretext of offering him new bank notes of Rs 2000 denomination at half the rate through their ''money exchnage'', police said on Monday.
The accused have allegedly cheated many people from Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and other parts of the country by employing a similar modus operandi in which they would claim to having "contacts" in the Central government.
The trio, identified Anand Tiwari alias Atul (30), Sujit Yadav (27) and Gayatri Shukla (31), used to claim that they run a money exchange, a crime branch officer said, adding that they were arrested on Saturday.
Tiwari claims himself to be a real estate businessman from Uttar Pradesh.
The accused would claim that they have good contacts in the Central government and promised to give the ''second series'' notes of Rs 2000 at the half rate, the officer said.
They would ask their victims to pay them up in the denominations of Rs 100 and Rs 200, he said.
After taking money from the gullible victims, they would cry a raid by police and flee.
They cheated many people by handing them bundles of papers cut in the shape of the bank notes, he said.
Police recovered seven mobile phones and six debit and credit cards from the accused.
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