The Chittoor district police have busted an inter-State gang involved in online fraud and arrested five persons on Wednesday.
The gang reportedly used to send messages to people that they won gift cards or vouchers of a company and that they need to deposit a certain amount to avail these offers.
Upon receiving 25 complaints, most of them from rural pockets, of Chittoor, Kallur, Gangadhara Nellore and Puthalapattu police limits, the department had formed a special team led by Deputy Superintendent of Police N. Sudhakar Reddy to study the pattern of online frauds. Acting on inputs, the police nabbed five persons near Masonic Ground in Chittoor early on Wednesday.
Addressing the media, Superintendent of Police Y. Rishanth Reddy said the department had recovered gift cards, vouchers, two laptops, thirty mobiles and an equal number of ATM cards, besides ₹1.8 lakh in cash from the arrested. They also seized documents pertaining to the fake bank accounts used by the gang.
The arrested were identified as Mukesh Kumar (23) of Jamui (Bihar), Sandesh (30), Kiran (35), H.S. Kiran (32) and Jainul Abid (33), all hailing from Coorg (Karnataka).
Mr. Rishanth Reddy appreciated Chittoor One Town police for cracking the crime and arresting the accused.