Hyderabad: Apple App Store, Telegram officials booked for fraud

The case was registered after two people from the city lost Rs 21 lakh in separate incidents of online investments and part-time job fraud respectively.

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad cybercrime police booked officials from Telegram and the Apple App Store India head in two cases of fraud on Friday, July 31.

The case was registered after two people from the city lost Rs 21 lakh in separate incidents of online investments and part-time job fraud, respectively. In the first case, a 62-year-old retired man from Somajiguda lost Rs 12.7 lakh that he had invested in a fraudulent investment app available on the App Store.

According to a report by The Times of India, in June the complainant came across an advertisement on Instagram for a stock trading platform.

The victim clicked on the link in the advertisement and was contacted by fraudsters Sonal Jagannath Naik and Kunal Sumaya. “I downloaded an app, JBara, from the App Store. Encouraged by the initial small profits of Rs 15,000, I invested Rs 12.7 lakh between June 30 and July 23 by transferring the amount to different bank accounts through the app,” the complainant said.

When he later attempted to withdraw the virtual profit of Rs 25.4 lakh shown on the app, the fraudsters allegedly blocked access and demanded an additional Rs 47.89 lakh towards an initial public offering subscription to enable withdrawals.

Realising that he had been duped, the victim approached the cybercrime police. Based on the complaint, the police registered a case against Naik Sumaya and the head of Apple App Store India.

Part-time job fraud

In the second case, a 59-year-old homemaker from Almasguda was duped of Rs 8.57 lakh via the Telegram app. In her complaint, the victim told the police that on July 26, she had come across a part-time job advertisement on Instagram.

On clicking on the link in the advertisement, the woman was redirected to a Telegram channel, where she was offered a job of paid Google reviews. According to the complainant, the Telegram channel was operated by fraudsters identified as Arohi Verma, Divya Mittal, and Sanjeev Kumar.

The handlers gained the victim’s trust by paying a small amount of money for Google reviews initially. “They paid Rs 9,670 in small batches for completing smaller tasks like reviews and ratings. Subsequently, in the name of a merchant order task, they asked me to transfer a fixed amount to a UPI ID to receive 30% profit,” the complainant told the police.

She also said that after the initial transfer of Rs 3,000, they kept making her deposit more, promising a full refund along with profit. She ended up transferring over Rs 8.5 lakh on July 27 and 28 and lost the entire amount.

Based on the complaint, the cybercrime police registered a case, and an investigation is underway.