Five held for running fake transport agency, duping people

LUCKNOW:UP Special Task Force (STF) claimed to have unearthed a racket involved in duping customers by registering a fake transport agency on online service provider portals and arrested five people including two brothers from Gudamba area here on Thursday night. The police said the fraudsters have allegedly duped over 200 traders and businessmen from different states using the same trick in past two years.

Senior superintendent of police (SSP) of STF Abhishek Singh said those arrested were identified as two brothers, Anuj Singh and Adesh Singh, who were the gang leaders, and their three relatives, Manoj Kumar

THE FRAUDSTERS OFTEN USED TO GET HALF OF THE AMOUNT TRANSFERRED AS ADVANCE PAYMENT. THEY CLOSED THE BANK ACCOUNT AFTER WITHDRAWING MONEY

Singh, Ankur Singh and Shivam Singh, all residents of Farrukhabad. He said they stayed in two different houses in Madiaon and Janakipuram and operated the racket from a rented flat in Gudamba from the last two years.

Explaining the modus operandi, Deputy SP of STF Indra Prakash Singh said the fraudsters floated multiple online transport agencies on fake address and got it registered on an online service provider portal. He said the fraudsters used to lure businessmen and traders by offering them low transport cost when they used to contact them on their mobile numbers and got advance amount transferred in their company’s bank account opened on forged identities.

He said the fraudsters often used to get half of the amount transferred as advance payment. He said the fraudsters used to close the bank account after withdrawing money and disappeared after switching off their mobiles phones.

Singh said the list of people cheated by them include businessmen and traders from Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab as well as Uttar Pradesh. He said the fraudsters would have duped over ₹50 lakh from different people through these means as per records and documents recovered from them. He said all accused have been handed over to Gudamba police after registering an FIR of fraud, forgery and criminal breach of trust against them and further trying to explore their network to know who else are involved in it.