Thousands lose crores by 'liking & sharing videos of celebs' in Bengaluru; 20 fraudsters held

Bengaluru South Division Police have arrested 20 fraudsters in two separate incidents on the charges of offering part-time jobs to the public and luring them into earning money. Through this app, they lured the public into investing crores of rupees as a deposit, promising to pay back Rs20 for each video or photo of celebrities watched, liked and shared. The online fraudsters have amassed Rs16.4Cr through social media platforms. Police have frozen their accounts and seized mobile phones and laptops

Bengaluru: The Bengaluru South Division Police have arrested 20 fraudsters in two separate incidents on the charges of luring jobseekers with earning money by watching and liking videos online by offering fake part-time jobs. Bank deposits of the accused worth Rs16.4 crore have been frozen by the police in both cases. The police have also seized Rs14.11 lakh cash, 7 mobiles, two laptops and other documents, South Division DCP Harish Pandey said.

In one case, the accused used to cheat the people via an online earnings app named Super Like App. They had developed this app to offer part-time jobs to unemployed people. They introduced this app on social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Twitter. Through this app, they lured the public into investing crores of rupees as a deposit, promising to pay back Rs20 for each video or photo of celebrities watched, liked and shared. Believing them, thousands of people deposited huge amounts of money.

This came to light after a victim named Sayyad lodged a complaint at Banashankari Police Station. At first, Sayyad deposited Rs50,000 and earned some money. Later the fraudsters lured him to earn much money if he made more people deposit. Trusting this, Sayyad made 44 customers deposit a total of Rs19.76 lakh. But after this, Sayyad did not earn money from the accused. Realising the blunder, he filed a complaint at the police station.

As per the complaint, Banashankari Police launched an investigation and interrogated 210 online fraud victims. Based on the information given by the victims, the police succeeded in identifying 14 accused and had frozen their bank deposits of Rs5.40 crore.

In another incident, the Konanakunte station police have arrested 6 persons, including one Himachal Pradesh-based person. These accused also cheated people by offering part-time jobs. The accused had developed an app named ‘Keep Share’ with the help of Chinese software developers. Through the app, they lured the public into investing crores of rupees as a deposit, promising to pay back Rs20 for each photo and video of celebrities watched and liked. The accused have opened many bank accounts for public investments.

The case was cracked following a complaint by Tippeswamy, a resident of Bengaluru, who had lost Rs4.83 lakh. Investigation revealed that the accused made people deposit Rs25 crore. The police have frozen over Rs11 crore that were found in 110 bank accounts. The police arrested 6 accused and seized 7 mobiles, two laptops and other documents.