Police bust two major scams; Kerala senior citizen arrested

PANAJI
The Cyber Crime Cell of Goa Police has cracked two major scams “ investment fraud and illegal call centre - including the arrest of a senior citizen from Kerala.
In the first detection, the sleuths arrested Prasantha Bose, 62, from Ernakulam for allegedly defrauding a Porvorim resident of Rs 69.75 lakh in a fake investment scheme. The case was registered on August 13 under Sections 318(4), 319(2), read with 3(5) of the BNS Act and Section 66-D of the IT Act.
Superintendent of Police (Cyber Crime) Rahul Gupta said the accused, using a WhatsApp number and a trading app named 360-ONE-HNW, impersonated an investment firm and convinced the victim that his investment had grown to Rs 5 crore. He was then pressured to pay ‘service fees’ to release the supposed profits.
The investigation team found that Bose received Rs 46 lakh in his bank account before routing the funds to multiple associates. The same account has surfaced in 23 cyber-fraud cases across six States with combined losses of Rs 2.10 crore. The team arrested Bose in Ernakulam.
In a separate operation, the Cyber Crime Police raided an illegal call centre at Bainginium, Old Goa, and arrested seven men from Gujarat, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Maharashtra. The case has been booked under Section 319(2) read with 3(5) of the BNS and Section 66-D of the IT Act.
Gupta said the group impersonated loan agents of a company called Payday to cheat US nationals, demanding payments through high-value gift cards, including Sephora, Macy’s, Apple and Razer Gold. Six laptops and four mobile phones were seized from the spot.
All accused in both cases have been remanded to police custody.