In a major cybercrime breakthrough, police arrested Sawan Kharbanda (37) from West Delhi for allegedly duping a man of Rs23 lakh through a bogus foreign exchange (forex) trading website.
The victim was lured via a Facebook advertisement that redirected him to a fake forex platform. After registering and sharing personal details, he was contacted by an unknown caller promising over 40% returns on investments.
The platform displayed false profits of over Rs84 lakh, but when the victim attempted to withdraw his earnings, the transactions failed—prompting him to file a complaint with Vadodara Cybercrime Police.
Cybercrime officials, led by ACP MM Rajput, traced the fraud trail through bank transactions and zeroed in on Kharbanda’s Delhi-based operations. During the raid, authorities seized a massive amount of fraudulent equipment and documents, including:
100+ SIM cards
69 mobile phones
72 rubber stamps
37 PAN cards
38 debit cards
3 Aadhaar cards
35 cheque books
2 computers
The materials were recovered from an office space rented specifically for carrying out the scam.
According to police, Kharbanda operated multiple bank accounts, using them to shuffle funds and obscure money trails. He also had access to over 160 Gmail accounts, all used to register fake identities and scam victims across India. Investigators revealed that the accounts under his control had recorded transactions worth several crores of rupees.
Authorities are now working to track down other gang members connected to the larger racket.
