Ahmedabad: Cyber Centre of Excellence (CCOE), Gujarat, on Tuesday arrested two men from Amreli’s Savarkundla in connection with a Rs 2.5 crore online fraud in which a victim was allegedly lured through an Instagram advertisement promising distributorship and 20% profit on sales.The accused have been identified as Kishan Savalia (30) and Haja Rathod (32). Police said Savalia was the holder of a bank account allegedly used to receive the fraud’s proceeds, while Rathod allegedly arranged and passed on bank account details to other members of the gang.Police said the victim saw an Instagram advertisement and was directed to a website to register as a distributor. He was asked to upload products such as clothes, furniture, electrical and electronic goods on an online store. The fraudsters allegedly told him that 80% of each order’s value had to be deposited into bank accounts provided by their customer service, while 20% would be shown as profit in his wallet in dollars.Police said further demands were made for credit-score repair, dollar-to-rupee conversion and closure of the online store. The victim eventually transferred Rs 2,53,91,066 into different bank accounts.Police traced the money trail to Savarkundla and arrested Savalia and Rathod. The same bank accounts had figured in 34 complaints registered on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal across 13 states, including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka and Kerala. Police found that 11 FIRs had also been registered in different states.
