Chennai: A man and his accomplice, who forced friends and family to open bank accounts and then sold the bank account kits to Hong Kong-based scamsters, have been arrested by the cyber crime wing in Chennai. The arrest followed a complaint from a woman in Adyar who lost more than 12 lakh.
During the course of the investigation, police found that M Mohammed Illiyas, 38, of Manali and A Tamil Selvam, 44, were the brains behind the scam.
Tamil Selvam sold more than five bank accounts to a person in Hong Kong, who identifies himself as ‘Tiger’ and got 80,000 for every account. The duo are cab drivers. Police said that using the bank account details, the duo siphoned off money worth several crores.
The complainant got introduced to the duo through an online part-time job offer. Usually, in such online job scams, victims are lured by WhatsApp and Telegram messages where they are offered simple tasks such as liking, subscribing to YouTube videos, writing Google reviews, hotel, and travel reviews among others.
Initially the victims receive money ranging from 150 to 1,000 for completion of tasks. Later they are slowly move to a Telegram group with more than 50 participants. There, the victims are asked to pay a subscription for getting tasks which will pay them more. The fraudsters then post fake screenshots of people earning more and give them more tasks. If they fail, the scamsters ask them to pay the penalty through which they get access to their bank accounts.
During the course of the investigation, police found that M Mohammed Illiyas, 38, of Manali and A Tamil Selvam, 44, were the brains behind the scam.
Tamil Selvam sold more than five bank accounts to a person in Hong Kong, who identifies himself as ‘Tiger’ and got 80,000 for every account. The duo are cab drivers. Police said that using the bank account details, the duo siphoned off money worth several crores.
The complainant got introduced to the duo through an online part-time job offer. Usually, in such online job scams, victims are lured by WhatsApp and Telegram messages where they are offered simple tasks such as liking, subscribing to YouTube videos, writing Google reviews, hotel, and travel reviews among others.
Initially the victims receive money ranging from 150 to 1,000 for completion of tasks. Later they are slowly move to a Telegram group with more than 50 participants. There, the victims are asked to pay a subscription for getting tasks which will pay them more. The fraudsters then post fake screenshots of people earning more and give them more tasks. If they fail, the scamsters ask them to pay the penalty through which they get access to their bank accounts.