Delhi Police have busted a cross-border cyber fraud racket and arrested three men who allegedly duped a local resident of Rs 15.8 lakh by offering money for writing fake online reviews of hotels and restaurants. The cheated funds were ultimately routed to Chinese handlers via cryptocurrency, police said on Thursday.
The accused Mahender Singh Rajawat (25), Ariph Khan (25) and Laxmi Narayan Vaishy (23) were in direct contact with a Chinese national who operated through an encrypted messaging application, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southwest) Amit Goel.
The scam came to light when a man, K Kant, filed a complaint after being duped by an online offer that promised money for posting positive reviews of restaurants and hotels. Initially, the victim was paid small amounts to gain his trust. Once convinced, he was tricked into transferring large sums of money under different false pretenses, such as completing so-called “welfare tasks,†resolving account freezing issues, and improving his credit score.
In total, the victim ended up transferring Rs 15.8 lakh to the fraudsters. The accused then routed the money through multiple bank accounts, converted the funds into USDT (Tether), a cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar and transferred the amount through online platforms to their Chinese handler.
