90% online frauds traced to Bharatpur

HYDERABAD: Of the 60 online marketplace fraud cases registered by Hyderabad and Rachakonda police commissionerates this year, as many as 56 — all with similar modus operandi — were traced to the notorious Bharatpur district in Rajasthan.

While police from Hyderabad commissionerate traced 36 of the 40 such cases to Bharatpur, all 20 cases in Rachakonda had links to the district in Rajasthan.

For Cyberabad, the third police commissionerate in the city limits, cops said they receive two-three such complaints daily, and roughly 60% have links to Bharatpur.

The biggest hurdle for policemen though is nabbing the culprits from their native places. There have been instances where Telangana police personnel were assaulted by villagers in Bharatpur district. So, despite having evidence, many such cases, commonly referred to as OLX frauds , remain unsolved.

“In December 2018, a team of 30 officers went to Bharatpur district to nab four offenders,” said a source from the police, who was part of that team. “The villagers refused to cooperate, threw chilly powder and pelted stones at the team. Even the local police are of no help. They think twice before going into the villages themselves.”

Fraudsters from Bharatpur usually post pictures of people in military uniform on online marketplaces such as OLX and Quikr — and even Instagram — claiming they want to sell fancy used cars, bikes, electronic goods, or other expensive items. In all the 20 cases at Rachakonda this year, cybercrime sleuths found that fraudsters pretended to be Army officials.

Raghu Vir, Additional DCP (cybercrime), Hyderabad commissionerate, said: “The fraudsters, pretending to be an Army or CRPF officer, post an online advertisement to sell secondhand electronic items or automobiles. As people trust Army officials, they take the bait. Fraudsters ask the buyers to make early payment after sending them a fake courier receipt. Once they receive the money, they disappear. Bharatpur is a hub of fraudsters, and they are hostile towards police teams visiting their villages.”

ACP Harinath, Rachakonda cybercrime, said, “We hardly get any help from local police there. Last time, when a team of cops went there, they were attacked with stones and sticks. This year, we observed that offenders are also luring victims on Facebook and Instagram.”

Police said they are taking several measures to curb these cases. Raghu Vir said, “We have had several meetings with the OLX management, which added several filters to the website and their app. The website also warns people to check before making any payment. We hope to see a positive result. The only solution will be spreading awareness about these fraud cases.”

Officials, however, also want buyers to be careful. Srinivas Kumar, ACP Cybercrime, Cyberabad, said, “Several Nigerians are also found to be involved in OLX frauds, but most get caught from Bangalore. The main problem here are the offenders from Bharatpur. Most of them are school and college dropouts, in the age group of 16 to 30. They ask buyers to send money through payments wallets such as Google Pay, Paytm, and Phone-Pe. The wallets can be traced, but it takes at least 10 days to trace their accounts.”

A senior police official from Bharatpur, said, “Most offenders are found to be from Kaman tehsil of Bharatpur. We cooperate with the other state police when they come here to investigate OLX fraud cases. But sometimes, villagers get aggressive and resist the police.”