In a significant crackdown on cyber fraud, the Mumbai Central cyber police have arrested eight individuals, including six mobile service provider employees and two shopkeepers, in connection with a fraudulent share market investment scheme. The scam, which involved illegally porting SIM cards without proper Know Your Customer (KYC) documentation, deceived numerous victims, including a central Mumbai resident who lost Rs51 lakh.
The case came to light when a victim, employed at a private firm in Mumbai, was convinced to invest in a virtual trading platform for shares. The victim was added to a WhatsApp group named “MSFL Chart 33” where fraudsters posted enticing share trading messages. After expressing interest, the victim’s trading account was created through a link, and documents were submitted to the scammers.
The fraudsters directed the victim to deposit funds into various bank accounts, totaling Rs51.36 lakh. While the victim observed apparent profits on the platform, attempts to withdraw any funds were unsuccessful. The virtual trading platform, however, was fake, and the investment was a scam.
Further investigation revealed that the accused had illegally ported over 30,000 SIM cards without KYC verification. The scheme relied on these ported numbers to facilitate fraudulent activities, including setting up the WhatsApp groups and facilitating the trading scams.
The cyber police, led by Deputy Commissioner Datta Nalawade, traced several mobile numbers used in the WhatsApp groups to locations in West Bengal. One number was traced to a mobile service provider gallery in Colaba, where the accused worked. They illegally generated UPC codes to port the SIM cards and bypass KYC checks, which is a violation of telecom regulations.
The arrested individuals are:
- Mahesh Mahadev Kadam
- Rohit Kanhaiyalal Yadav
- Sagar Pandurang Thakur
- Raj Ravinath Arde (all employees of Vi Company working under team leader Mahesh Pawar)
- Gulabchand Kanhaiya Jaiswar, an employee of Airtel
- Colaba shopkeepers Usman Ali Mohammad Hejabur Rahman Sheikh and Abubakar Siddiqui Yusuf.
According to Senior Inspector Mausami Patil of the Central Cyber Police Station, the arrested individuals are accused of selling approximately 30,000 SIM cards to foreign nationals and other individuals without the required KYC verification over the past year.
The scam has caused significant financial harm to the victim, who was duped into believing that their investments were yielding returns on a legitimate trading platform. The police investigation continues, with authorities focusing on the network of individuals involved in the illegal SIM card porting and their connection to the virtual trading platform.
This case highlights the dangers of fraudulent online trading schemes and the importance of proper KYC verification in preventing such cyber crimes. The authorities are also investigating how the fraudulent trading platform operated and its connections to the fake SIM card network.