Over 1,000 duped in pan-india online scooty scam

The Delhi cyber crime police busted a gang involved in online pan-india Ola electric scooty scam and arrested its 20 members from various parts of the country, including Karnataka’s Bengaluru, Haryana’s Gurugram and Bihar’s Patna, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer North) Devesh Mahla said on Monday.

The DCP said that the gang duped over 1,000 persons online of millions of rupees in the name of selling them electric scooty. The gang was busted following a thorough investigation after a first information report was registered on October 8 under Section 420 of IPC on the basis of a complaint received by the cyber police station, he added.

About their modus operandi, the police said that two persons in Bengaluru designed a fake website of Ola scooter. The gang used to target gullible persons who searched about Ola scooter and wanted to know more about it on the website, the police added.

As soon as they uploaded their details on the website, both the Bengaluru men shared their mobile numbers and other details with their gang members in other states, they added.

Subsequently, the gang members from Bihar and Telangana called the victims and asked them to transfer Rs499 online in the name of booking an Ola scooter, the police added.

The gang members further asked each of the victims to transfer Rs60,000 to Rs70,000 towards insurance and transportation charges of the scooty.

In his complaint, the victim alleged that he tried to book an Ola electric scooter via the Ola app on September 26 as that was the only way to purchase it. However, he was not able to complete that process that day as he was in need of a finance option.

Later on the same day he received a call from Ola electric scooter and a person described the offline process to him. The next day, he received another call from the same person and he informed him about the booking process and the payment of Rs499. He transfered that amount via Payu app, and received a booking confirmation slip and a ‘process started’ intimation, the complainant stated.

The following day, the complainant received an email about the finance options as per his request and he opted to go with Ola money to finance the deal. Then he generated a down payment link for Rs30,000 which was received via Payu app on Whatsapp. As per the finance plan, the complainant agreed to pay Rs30,000 as down payment and the rest of the amount in equated monthly instalments (EMIS), he added.

The complainant further stated that he got an email where the sanctioned amount was shown as Rs72,000 and the rest was required to be paid by him. After getting the email, he talked to that person again, who suggested him to pay the rest of the amount.

At this, the complainant agreed to pay the same and asked him to start the delivery process.

Subsequently, the gang member called the complainant and told him that he would be dispatched the scooter on that day itself but asked him to pay the remaining amount, plus Rs13,000 delivery charges.

The cyber crime cell initiated the probe into the cheating case after getting the complaint and busted the gang.