Bengaluru : The Adugodi police have arrested seven individuals involved in an elaborate scheme of defrauding unsuspecting victims by creating fake profiles on Facebook. The arrested suspects, hailing from Mysuru and Chikkaballapura, used social media deception to siphon money from their targets.

The arrested individuals have been identified as Shashikumar (25) from JP Nagar in Mysuru, and Syed Kasif (31), Mudasir (36), Shafi (38), Imijay Pasha (33), Azaruddin (32), and Syed Danish (20) from Chikkaballapura. During the operation, authorities seized multiple items, including nine mobile phones, 31 ATM cards, 11 bank passbooks, six cheque books, and nine Aadhaar cards.

The fraudulent activity came to light after a victim, identified as Kasif, filed a complaint. On January 7, Kasif received a friend request on Facebook from a profile that appeared to belong to an old acquaintance. Trusting the familiar profile picture, he accepted the request. The scammer, posing as someone based in Dubai, engaged Kasif in conversations and, after a few days, claimed he was returning to India with a large sum of money. The fraudster explained that he needed help to transfer the funds into India without incurring heavy taxes and persuaded Kasif to share his bank account details.

Following this, Kasif received a fraudulent transaction receipt via Facebook, indicating that Rs. 7.85 lakh had been deposited into his account. The next day, the scammer claimed he had been detained at a police station in Saudi Arabia and urgently needed Rs. 1.95 lakh for his release. Trusting the story, Kasif transferred Rs. 1.50 lakh to the bank details provided by the fraudster. It was only after checking his bank account later that he realised no money had been deposited as claimed. He immediately approached the police to file a complaint.

Upon investigating, the police uncovered a web of financial fraud, with the accused operating multiple bank accounts to execute their scams. Reports from the Cyber Help Line (1930) led investigators to discover at least 28 cases linked to the group. Following the money trail, the police traced a suspicious transaction to an account at the Bank of Maharashtra in Mysuru.

Acting on this lead, the Adugodi police swiftly moved to Mysuru and arrested one of the suspects from his residence in Belawadi. During interrogation, the accused admitted to his involvement in the crime and revealed the identities of his co-conspirators. Based on the information provided, the police arrested the remaining six members of the gang.