A 30-year-old man who used to steal vehicles up for sale on commercial online websites was arrested by the Vidyaranyapura police on Thursday.
The accused Manjunath N. from Kanakapura was arrested based on a complaint by Adarsh, from Doddabommasandra, who had put up an advertisement to sell his motorcycle.
The accused approached him as a buyer and escaped after taking the bike for test ride. Based on the complaint, the police tracked down the accused through the mobile phone number which the accused had taken in the name of another person.
With his arrest, the police have cracked nine cases and recovered three cars, a bike and five mobile phones from him.
The accused would not only cheat people who were selling bikes online but also unemployed youth and security guards, inspector Anil Kumar V., who probed the case, said.
Manjunath would take the certificates from unemployed youth and security guards, promise them jobs with decent salary and using their certificates, he would buy a SIM card and use it to contact people who put up advertisements to sell their vehicles online, said the police.