EOW Odisha Operations Beyond The Border

Bureau,Odishabarta

Bhubaneswar,16/07/23:With the rapid spread of technology especially internet, Fin-tech (Financial technology), digital payments, social media platforms and alternative/ private communication platforms like Facebook, Whatsapp & Telegram etc., it has changed the crime/ criminal modus operandi to a great extent. Criminals especially the financial criminals have not only become very tech savvy but also they are using innovative and complex methods of misusing the modern technical and communication platforms.

Also criminals no longer have to operate locally or need to visit the crime spot or physically interact with victims. It gets further challenging as the criminals are no longer dependent on traditional methods of payments in the age of digital payments. Criminals can run their network sitting far away from the place of occurrence.

In recent times, EOW has detected and investigated many cases where the masterminds/ boss of some mega Pan India cyber-financial frauds, were actually operating from faraway places like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad etc. In some cases they were also running the syndicate from places like China, Hongkong and Dubai.

However, EOW too has adapted accordingly in order to face the new challenges of misuse of modern technology, Fin-tech and communication platforms. In last few years, on many occasions, EOW conducted operation in other states and arrested many accused persons wanted in cases like- Job frauds, Online Ponzi schemes, Illegal Chinese Loan Apps, Crypto related frauds, Youtube/Hotels etc. liking/rating Scams, Work from home scams, Courier scams, Money earning Apps, hawala related fraud, Share market related fraud etc.

In the cases where accused were operating from China, Hong Kong, Dubai and Malaysia, Look out circular have been issued by Bureau of Immigration on the request of EOW.

In last two years, on following occasions, EOW Odisha conducted operation in other states and arrested accused persons involved in various EOW cases.

1. Feb 2021- EOW arrested the mastermind of inter-state racket of check cloning case (2.87 Crore/ EOW case 01/21) from Ranchi, Jharkhand.

2. Apr 2021- EOW arrested one fraudster of Kerala in a fraud case of Rs. 4.80 crores in EOW PS Case No. 05/2021. The Victim, who works in South Korea,was defrauded by on the pretext of granting prospective mining license by preparing and using fabricated documents.

3. July 2021- EOW arrested the main accused , chairman & MD of Mass Infra-reality limited in a multi crore fraud case from a posh locality of Kolkata.

4. July 2021- EOW arrested one of the main accused, director of Inter Ocean Videsh Limited in a multi crore fraud case from Bareli, Uttar Pradesh.

5. Aug 2021- EOW arrested the regional manager of rose valley company in a multi crore fraud case from Midnapore, West Bengal.

6. Aug 2021- EOW arrested the main accused of Rs 5.62 crore bank fraud case (corporation bank) from Trichy, Tamilnadu.

7. Sep 2021- EOW arrested the main accused, MD of Welfare building & estate private Ltd, in a multi crore deposit fraud case from Vizag, AP.

8. Dec 2021- EOW arrested another accused in Rs 1.17 crore cheating case from Dwarka, New Delhi.

9. Feb 2022- EOW arrested the Director/promoter of a chit fund company from Gwalior,Madhya Pradesh.The company (Auroxa deal multi-trade pvt ltd) has duped investors of more than Rs 10 crores.

10. Mar 2022- EOW arrested the Director of Mass infra reality limited from Kolkata in a case related to duping around Rs 15 crores from numerous investors using its ponzi schemes.

11. Mar 2022- EOW arrested two directors of one stock market advisory company IAAVIC pvt Ltd from Mumbai. The company runs ponzi schemes masking as share advisory on a cyber platform. They duped more than Rs 10 crores from investors from Odisha and many states.

12. Mar 2022- EOW arrested one fraudster form Noida,UP for duping around Rs 2.35 crore of a businessman from odisha.The accused is one of the members of a gang involved in many cases of fraud, faking/forging documents and impersonating as senior Govt/RBI officials.

13. Mar 2022- EOW, with the help of Keonjhar district police and Barrackpore police WB,arrested two fraudsters from West Bengal involved in siphoning off Rs 2.45 crore of Badbil municipality.

14. Mar 2022- EOW arrested two hardcore fraudster/extortionist/ hawala racketeer from Bandra area of Mumbai for duping Rs 2. Crore of a businessman of Odisha.The accused is involved in at least 15 criminal cases of Maharashtra and UP.

15. May 2022- EOW, with the help of UP Police, arrested one accused in the illegal loan APP case from Ghaziabad. He used to run a shell company (IWT India) to divert the money for these APPs.

16. May 2022- EOW arrested another fraudster in illegal loan APP case.A native of Gurugram,Haryana, he was caught with 41 active SIMs (issued in others name, to be used as hired/mule account). He is director/owner of 5 shell companies.

17. May 2022- EOW arrested Director of “Digital revolution tech ltd” from Mathura, UP for running ponzi schemes online, duping thousands of investors (of many states)of multiple crores. The company claimed to run a desi version of Whatsapp/youtube/amazon/email/netflix like products.

18. May 2022- EOW arrested MD of Mahagram Finance pvt Ltd, Mumbai in illegal loan APP case from Delhi Airport. More than 1000 virtual bank accounts have been blocked.

19. June 2022- EOW arrested 2 more fraudsters(both from Karnataka) in illegal loan APP case. They are directors of 3 shell companies (based at Bangalore & Gurugram).They also ran call center to make threatening calls.

20. July 2022- EOW arrested Director of one Shell Company from New Delhi for running illegal loan APP “Kredit-Gold” in connivance with 3 Chinese Bosses. It had 1 lakh+ downloads.

21. July 2022- EOW arrested a Delhi based chartered accountant (ex-bank manager) who is one of the main accused in two loan fraud cases of PNB involving fraud of more than Rs 6 crores.

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22. Aug 2022- EOW arrested one accused chartered accountant from paschim vihar, New Delhi in illegal digital loan APP case. He created many shell companies for Chinese Boss to run these APPs.

23. Sep 2022- EOW cracks a major pan India income tax refund scam being operated from Delhi NCR area. One of the main accused ( a Chartered accountant) was arrested from Faridabad,Haryana.

24. Oct 2022- EOW, with the help of Andhra Pradesh Police, arrested Manoj Panda from Kakinada district AP. He is the Director of Odyssa homes & commercial Pvt Ltd and main accused in a real estates fraud of more than Rs 20 crores.

25. Oct 2022- EOW arrested the accused Managing director of Jetex Oceanair pvt ltd from Kolkata.This refers to chit fund case / EOW case no 13/2015 involving duping of around Rs 2.6 crore.

26. Nov 2022- EOW, with the help of Uttar Pradesh Police, arrested another accused from Etah, UP in case no 2/2022 in which the victim was cheated of Rs 2.35 Crore by some conmen impersonating and forging documents as senior RBI, insurance and Govt officials .

27. Nov 2022- EOW, with the help of Alwar police, arrested two scammers from Rajasthan involved in a huge multi state cyber- economic offences. In this racket thousands of mule accounts and SIMs procured from various states were used.

28. Dec 2022- EOW cracked a “Scholarship scam” and “Solar equipment scam” run by one “Vastav India trust” in states like Odisha, Jharkhand ,Bihar and Delhi. They had duped around Rs 4 Crore in Odisha alone. It’s president & secretary was arrested by EOW in Ranchi.

29. Dec 2022- EOW cracked one of the biggest job frauds being run from Aligarh by a group of tech savvy fraudsters. One main accused was arrested with the help of UP police.The scam was running in at least 5 states, Odisha, West Bengal, Gujarat, AP and Karnataka

30. Jan 2023- One of the main accused (an IT engineer, website designer & developer expert) was arrested from Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh in the Job Fraud case. He had developed at least nine fake govt websites to cheat the vulnerable job seekers targeting 5 states.

31. Feb 2023- EOW cracked one huge job fraud being run in 17 states (including Odisha) styled as Gramin Rojgar Kalyan Sansthan.The main accused was arrested from Gopalganj, Bihar with the help of local police. GRKS had branches at Mumbai,Bhopal, Delhi and Dehradun.

32. Feb 2023- EOW arrested two directors of a shell company from Kolkata in an online ponzi cum betting racket (http://18football.com).The website is registered/operated from Hongkong & Dubai.

33. Mar 2023- EOW arrested director of a shell company from Udaipur ,Rajsthan in online ponzi cum betting racket (http://18football.com).The website is registered/operated from Hongkong & Dubai

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34. Mar 2023- EOW arrested one of the main accused (website developer/IT head) in ” Gramin Rojgar Kalyan Sansthan” job fraud case from Siwan Bihar.

35. Apr 2023- EOW cracked an Online Ponzi/ MLM scam named GETSO earning App. They fraudulently claimed to be a Crypto Mining US based company. Transactions of more than Rs 144 crore across india has been traced so far. One accused was arrested from Pune Maharashtra.

36. Apr 2023- EOW arrested another director of a shell company from Thrissur, Kerala in online ponzi racket (http://18football.com).The website is registered/operated from Hongkong & Dubai.

37. Apr 2023- EOW cracked an Online Ponzi scam named http://r46.in/ebay. They fraudulently claimed to be an online shopping company. More than 65 thousand people across the country are suspected to be duped. Three accused were arrested from Ghaziabad,UP.

38. July 2023- EOW arrested one more accused from Coorg, Karnataka in Online Ponzi/ MLM scam named GETSO earning App. They fraudulently claimed to be a US based Crypto mining company.

39. July 2023- EOW detected a case of QR code manipulation scam in which a Fintech company lost more than 14 crore. One Noida based accused ( director of Payone digital service private limited) was arrested. Initial investigation suggests Chinese link in this fraud.