Delhi police on Monday arrested three men from Tamil Nadu after discovering an online extortion ring being run from Veal Pon, near the capital city Phnom Penh in Cambodia, to target Indians on the pretext of freezing their computer for watching online porn.
The gang used to send pop-up notices to internet users in the name of local police, asking them to pay Rs 3,000 to avoid legal action against them for accessing online porn. At least Rs 30 lakh was defrauded, routed through as many as 20 bank accounts, investigators found.
Police have identified the arrested trio as Gabrial James and Ram Kumar from Chennai and their third associate, B.Dhinushanth, from Trichy.
Deputy commissioner of police (cyber cell) Anyesh Roy said they have found that it was Dhinushanth’s brother, B. Chanderkant, who handled the technical part of the entire operation; hosting of bogus police notice and its targeted display to internet users. Chanderkant is operating from Veal Pon near Cambodia.
Roy said they came across various cases wherein people were charged money after a pop-up appeared on their computer screen warning them that their files have been frozen for accessing pornography or other censored content on internet, and that they must pay Rs 3,000 as a fine.
Initial probe revealed that these bogus pop-up notices were being routed through foreign locations. “Sensing suspicion, as we investigated further, the money trail led to multiple accounts operating from Tamil Nadu in which the money had been deposited. Based on this, our teams camped between Chennai, Trichy, Coimbatore, Udhagamandalam, and several other places and finally managed to zero in on three suspects including the local mastermind, B. Dhinushanth. All of them were arrested flowing raids,” Roy said.
It was then that during the interrogation, Dhinushanth informed police that the technical part of the entire operation was being handled by his brother, B. Chanderkant.
Police have also established that more than 20 bank accounts have been used to route the defrauded money which is more than Rs 30 lakh. “Dhinushanth further told police that the money was being moved out from the banking system through cryptocurrencies by his brother Chandru,” Roy said.
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