Penthouse raid blows lid off multi-crore gaming app scam; 15 arrested
The Lucknow police on Thursday arrested 15 individuals, mostly from Bihar, in connection with a ₹25-crore online scam operated through a gaming app. The arrests were made during a raid on a rented luxury penthouse in the city's PGI area.
The accused allegedly lured victims across the country by offering fake online jobs and betting opportunities through a mobile application, said DCP (crime) Kamlesh Dixit. The racket was reportedly being controlled remotely by its mastermind, who operated from Sri Lanka, Singapore, Dubai, and India to evade law enforcement.
'Acting on a tip-off, a joint team from the cyber crime police station, cyber cell, and PGI police station raided flat No. 1105 on the 11th floor of a building where they discovered a fully operational cyber fraud setup with multiple workstations, mobile phones, laptops, and SIM cards,' Dixit said.
Those arrested have been identified as Haripreet Singh (23) from Lakhimpur in U.P, Sandeep Kumar (29) from Deoria in UP, and Manish Kumar (25) from Bhopal, along with Abhishek Kumar Rajbhar (22), Ashish Kumar (24), Mannu Kumar (25), Ritesh Singh, Iftikhar Ali (25), Shubham Soni, Sonu Ali (19), Ravi Singh (21), Karan Kumar (22), Vikas Kumar (25), Ritesh Singh (21), and Sanjeev Kumar (26) -- all from Bihar, according to a police statement.
The police recovered 70 mobile phones, 11 laptops, 115 debit cards, 25 cheque books, 53 bank passbooks, 38 SIM cards, 26 used SIMs, nine PAN cards, and a Wi-Fi camera from the flat. Officials said the penthouse had been rented a month ago for ₹50,000 under the guise of setting up a multinational company office. The gang recruited young men by promising online jobs with performance-based incentives, officials said.
The gang used a gaming app named 'Anna Reddy' to dupe people by promising high returns for completing online tasks, submitting reviews, and betting on sports. Victims were primarily contacted through social media platforms. Once money was deposited by the victims, it was quickly transferred into fake bank accounts. If a complaint was raised, the accused would freeze the accounts, discard the SIM cards, and shift operations to a new location, police said.
The alleged mastermind, identified as Vishal Yadav alias Ganni alias Prince, managed the scam from abroad and frequently changed his base to stay ahead of law enforcement agencies.
A preliminary probe has linked 69 complaints to the mobile numbers recovered and 157 complaints to the cheque books and passbooks seized. Investigators also found evidence of transactions worth several crores, officials added.
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