The Ainthapali police in Sambalpur district on Tuesday arrested three persons, including two engineering students, in connection with a cyber fraud to the tune of Rs 2 lakh.
The two arrested engineering students had reportedly gone missing, along with two fellow students of a private engineering college in Bhubaneswar, since February 11.
Those arrested have been identified as Rahmat Ansari (22) of Malandi village in Deoghar distirct of Jharkhand, Vishal Pandey (21) of Janta Market Station Road in East Singbhum district of Jharkhand and Sekhar Gautam (21) of Sikandra Road in Jamui district of Bihar.
The police have seized Rs 1.13 lakh cash, nine mobile phones, ATM cards of different banks and one laptop from their possession.
Police said the accused persons called up one Saroj Dash (45) of Anguliapada under Ainthapali police limits and offered assistance to complete formalities of a personal loan which he had applied online on February 5, 2022. When the loan amount was credited to the applicant’s bank account, the accused persons fraudulently diverted Rs 2 lakh to another account.
During investigation, all clues were verified and the three accused were arrested. They allegedly confessed to have cheated the complainant of Rs 2 lakh and distributed the amount among themselves.
They revealed that they usually post lucrative ads and post on different sites to allure unsuspecting people. On getting call from them, they advised to share their personal data with them and manage to make fraudulent transactions, police said.
Apart from these tricks, they also host their numbers in customer care list of different online sites to trap the innocent people. They usually procure these fake SIM cards from black markets in Kolkata, police said.