The Cyber Crime Wing of the Tamil Nadu police unearthed a network of fraudulent online gaming portals run by a group of engineers who are suspected to have bilked people out of ₹10 crore. Russian operators had paid the group in cryptocurrency.
In October, the Kallakurichi police arrested Manikandan, 26, considered to be one of the operators of these portals. Then the police arrested eight more engineering graduates. The arrests followed the detection of high-volume bank transactions.
Amresh Pujari, Additional Director-General of Police, Cyber Crime Wing, ordered a special team, led by Superintendent of Police M.R.Sibi Chakravarthy, to conduct a thorough investigation.
The team conducted raids at Pammal, Sankar Nagar and Ambattur and arrested Sasikumar, Saikumar, Raj Kumar, Rajesh Kumar and Mohammed Asif, all engineering graduates aged 24-26. Laptops, desktops, mobile phones, ATM cards, pen drives, SIM cards and a car were seized from them.
Mr. Sibi Chakravarthy told The Hindu, “The accused are suspected to be the agents of Russian operators and they were communicating through e-mail. They used the software supplied by them. The gang had programmed the application so that even the winner/loser could be decided by them; after bets were placed and payments were made, the accused made sure the customers lost all the money. The gang was making huge profits.”
They engaged some persons for a few thousand rupees to get SIM cards and deposited the money in fictitious bank accounts. The initial investigation showed they had transacted with the foreign operators through cryptocurrency, Mr. Sibi Chakravarthy said.
The police will alert the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department to this network. Steps are being taken to freeze the online websites used for gaming.
The Cyber Crime Wing has requested people to avoid online gaming and asked the victims to report through cyber crime helpline 155260.
