'Chinese handlers' behind cyber-fraudsters who duped over 5 lakh of Rs 150 crore: Police

New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Wednesday said that they had arrested 11 people including two charted accountants for duping people by offering lucrative returns on an online multi-level marketing campaign. As per officials, the accused were installing malicious mobile applications on the phones of Indians in the garb of quick money earning applications.

Police said more than 5,00,000 confirmed victims have been identified so far, who have been cheated of over Rs 150 crores collectively in a span of two months.

"Rs 11 crore of cheated money has been blocked in various bank accounts and payment gateways. Rs 97 lakh cash was recovered from a Gurgaon-based CA who formed over 110 companies for Chinese fraudsters," officials said.

The police said they noticed various posts on social media by people from across the country about two mobile applications (Power Bank and EZPlan). While Power Bank App was available on Google Play Store, EZPlan was available on the website wwwexplainn.in. These apps offered lucrative returns on investment with claims of doubling principle amount in about 24-35 days.

During the probe, the police said they arrested 11 people and found that the main Chinese handlers behind this massive scam, used to randomly contact people over various apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram and hired the interested persons as partners for procuring bogus bank accounts, creating shell companies, circulating and promoting the apps and transferring money.

They circulated the link of an 'online App' that induces and cheats large number of people by promising them lucrative returns based on a multi-level marketing model. In the garb of this scheme, they designed and circulated mobile applications which also stole the data of the user. "The Chinese fraudsters and their local operatives also used sophisticated software and financial tools for automated fund transfer to manage the enormous scale of the fraud," officials said.