Warangal police on Friday busted Mancherial district-based 13-member gang duping people with false offers of online gifts. An amount of ₹14.36 lakh, 15 mobile phones and scores of scratch cards were recovered from them, said Warangal Police Commissioner Tarun Joshi.
Addressing a press conference, Mr. Joshi said the gang operated from a rented flat in Kolkata of West Bengal. Three others engaged by the gang to assist them are absconding and a hunt is on to nab them.
The kingpins Ippa Raj Kumar and Tallapally Damoder Goud, both from Bellampally, hatched a plot to trick people into parting with money throwing online shopping gifts as baits.
The gang collected phone numbers of people who purchased goods and articles online by placing orders through e-commerce sites. “They would send messages to mobile phones of the shoppers congratulating them saying they had own prizes for online shopping,” the Commissioner explained. They used to send gift cards to the shoppers’ addresses through postal or courier service saying the shoppers had won cars or money as prize.
They would give phone numbers on the gift cards. When the customers call those numbers, members of the gang would answer saying the winning of gifts was real. The tricksters would request the callers to deposit money online towards tax to secure the cars and stop answering calls once the money was transferred.
The Commissioner congratulated Task Force ACP in-charge Pratap Kumar and others for tracking and catching the accused using technical tools.
