The crime sleuths have arrested a person for duping people and stealing their money, made for purchase of furniture, via online advertising platform.
According to Deputy Superintendent of Police (Crime Sub Division) T.V. Konda Reddy, the accused J. Nagaraju (29), hailing from Chebrolu mandal of Guntur district, was involved in a series of frauds using the advertising platform – Quikr. “His modus operandi involved showcasing himself as a seller of storage racks, uploading pictures of the furniture on several fake accounts. Negotiating with prospective buyers, via the online advertising platform, Nagaraju used to convince them to transfer advance amount to his bank accounts and later evaded the questions about the sale, tiring the customers with false promises or abuses,” Mr. Reddy said.
A case was registered against Nagaraju in June 2016 at the Veldurthy police station in Guntur and as a part of the investigation, police froze all the bank accounts. After his release from Gurazala jail, Nagaraju collected bank account numbers of his acquaintances on the pretext of receiving money from friends, and began creating a new round of fake accounts on the online advertising platform. The entire incident came into light when a Bengaluru-based C.S. Anil Kumar made a transaction of ₹61,000 for the purchase of furniture from Nagaraju and the latter failed to keep the promise. The complaint lodged by Mr. Kumar prompted the crime sleuths (of Tirupati Urban Police) to launch an investigation and further arrest of Nagaraju from a house near Savalyapuram mandal of Guntur district, on Thursday night.
Police officials said that Nagaraju had embarked on online fraud from June 2015 and had cheated more than 60 persons stealing ₹10.14 lakh. The accused has been sent to judicial remand.
