Fake mobile handsets, smartphones and tablets including duplicates of the latest high-end Samsung Galaxy S3 are doing the rounds in the city’s grey market.
After a recent raid carried out by a CB-CID team at Richie Street, it was found that fraudsters had created software to program Chinese handsets to look like original handsets and tablets of Samsung. Over 300 handsets and 65 tablets worth Rs. 14 lakh were seized and six persons were arrested.
A CB-CID officer said the raids were carried out by the team in some shops on Richie Street on Wednesday, while police teams conducted raids in Mumbai and Kolkata.
The raids were carried out at six shops here, following specific information, and the duplicate equipment was seized, the officer said.
It was known that the culprits imported cheap Chinese-made mobile phones and tablets which looked exactly like Samsung products. After receiving the consignment in Mumbai, the equipment was distributed to Chennai and other cities.
“The culprits here had programmed the phones and tablets in a way that the Samsung display appears when switched on. All the other applications in the phones and tablets have been replicated and in a final touch to the fraud they pasted fake logos and packed the equipment to make them look original,” said P. Rajasekaran, Inspector of Police, CB-CID.
Many customers in Chennai have been conned after the fake handsets were sold in a discount sale.
Some buyers knew the handsets were fake and still bought it for rock bottom prices, the officer added.
The arrested were indentified as Raju (24), Narendar (21), Raffiq (32), Firosekhan (19), Dawulad Singh (20) and Haneefa (19), all of them residents of Chennai.
