The three gangs of imposters that were making cons of the victims by offering franchisees or dealerships in the name of the Hindustan Times’ job website, Shine, Shoppers Stop, Dabur India, and Indiamart, have been busted by the Delhi Police Cyber Crime Unit (IFSO).
In a statement, the Delhi Police said the IFSO Special Cell arrested 12 people from across Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Varanasi, and Bihar. Three laptops, 20 mobile phones, SIM cards, ATM cards, and cheque books have been recovered from the accused.
Shine, Shoppers Stop, Dabur India, and Indiamart are just a few of the prominent companies that the Delhi High Court recently referred to the Delhi Police’s IFSO unit for several cases of trademark and copyright violations. The imposters had created fake profiles of these companies and used them to deceive the victims by using fake websites and email IDs created in the names of these firms.
HT Media alleged some unknown people had created similar and confusing website names like www.learningshine.com, www.shine02.com, www.webshinejob.com, www.shinerecruiter.com, www.shinecomplaints.com,www.resume-shine.com and email ids like hr.shinerecruiter2@gmail.com and others containing the domain name of the company (www.shine.com).
According to a statement from the Delhi Police, they used to call victims on the company’s behalf and defraud the citizens by taking their hard-earned money. The team scrutinised and gathered information about the alleged websites and fictitious email addresses during the investigation. The squad located the seven suspects in Bihar and Delhi.
In a different incident, the retail chain Shoppers Stop Ltd. claimed that unidentified people were extorting money from victims by acting as corporate officials. The accused deceived the public by creating the fake website www.shopperstop.co.in. The investigative team arrested one Priyansh Yadav from Varanasi after acting on a FIR.
In another case, Dabur India had also alleged that fake websites like www.daburdistributor.com, www.dapurfranchisee.in, and https://daburdistributorships.in were being used to dupe people by promising them Dabur India’s distributorship.
Kusum and Neelam were arrested by the Delhi Police in the country’s capital.
On the other hand, two Mumbai residents were arrested in response to a FIR filed by Indiamart, which said the suspects approached consumers via phoney phone calls, SMS messages, and WhatsApp messages while claiming to offer financial services on behalf of a company.
The Delhi Police said further raids are being carried out to identify and arrest the accused in connection with the cases related to other firms too. HT Media’s matter was represented before the Cyber Prevention Awareness Detection (CYPAD) of the Delhi Police by the Shine legal team along with Saurabh Kumar, managing partner, SK Attorney, Delhi.