Tirupati: Software engineer arrested for cyber fraud

Tirupati: Tirupati Cyber wing police have arrested software engineer Balaji for cheating people using OLX market platform. The accused is a B Tech graduate and resident of Bhavani Nagar, Tirupati.

CID DSP Padmalatha briefed the media about Balaji’s modus operandi here on Sunday. According to her, Balaji will select a mobile that is for sale on OLX platform and will inform the seller that he will buy the product. Meanwhile, Balaji will post the photos of the same mobile on the platform, on a different ID. If any prospective buyer contacts Balaji, then he will ask him to meet at a particular place, posing as a relative or friend of the original seller of the phone on OLX.

Balaji also informs the first seller to meet at the same place, which he told the prospective buyer.

At the same time, he will go to an ATM centre and requests a random person to give his UPI facility, since his (Balaji’s) UPI is not working due to technical issues. Then Balaji will give this stranger’s UPI number to the prospective buyer, asking him to deposit the mobile price amount to that number. After the amount was credited into the stranger’s (at ATM centre) account, Balaji will collect the amount from the stranger and will disappear.

When the original seller and prospective buyer meets at the venue as told by Balaji, the prospective buyer asks the seller to handover the mobile since he made online payment to UPI account and the seller refuses to give the mobile, saying that he didn’t receive any amount.

That is when the prospective buyer realises someone had cheated him.

The DSP informed that Balaji had cheated 23 people so far in the same way. She warned people not to give their UPI numbers to strangers at ATM centres. If they do so, they have to face police case for cybercrime,

she warned.

It was found during investigation that accused Balaji also using UPI facility of some auto drivers, whom he knew, to get payment for the sale of mobiles.

CID ADGP N Sanjay congratulated the CID team RO Padmalatha, CI Rama Kishore, SI Baba Fakhruddin and others for

cracking the case.