UP man held for cheating people through online video scheme

Vadodara: In a very unique online scam, a native of Uttar Pradesh allegedly duped three persons from Chansad village of Padra of Rs 4 lakh. Vadodara rural police arrested the scamster on Tuesday.
According to police, accused Vikas Dubey takes varying amounts in the name of subscription for his unique website in lieu of investment. Dubey floated a website that would provide his customers with advertisement videos after they subscribe to his site. One of the victims, Kiran Patel, said that they were also promised payment of Rs 4 for watching one advertisement video through the website, said cops.
Accordingly, he took Rs 4.2 lakh from the three victims as subscription amount in September last year. The trio was initially paid Rs 14,400 for watching videos, but in January Dubey shut down the website but didn’t return the remaining amount of Rs 4 lakh to the trio.
In February, Patel lodged a complaint of cheating and violation of Information Technology Act against an unidentified person.
“We had the person’s mobile phone number as well as bank account numbers. We started probing based on PAN card, Aadhaar card and GST forms. Later, we got more details from Gmail and two web hosting companies and we zeroed our search in Lucknow and Banda district in Uttar Pradesh,” said a police official.
Dubey was arrested from his home in Banda and brought to Vadodara on transit remand. Cops also recovered Rs 4 lakh cash from the accused.
Dubey also broke down and admitted of cheated nine other persons to the tune of Rs 33 lakh from Vadodara, Ahmedabad and Navsari in a similar modus operandi.