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HYDERABAD: Fraudsters who duped a city-based businessman of Rs 17.5 lakh in the guise of online forex trade have cheated at least six others in similar fashion after befriending them on online dating networks, including a retired armed forces officer who lost Rs 23 lakh.The accused, suspected to be operating from Hong Kong, had used phone numbers of Hong Kong (+852), Singapore (+65) and the UK (+44), used Indian agents who provided them local bank accounts. One such local associate, K Rajesh Kumar, an engineering graduate from Kondapur arrested by police for duping city-based businessman K Umakanth of Rs 17.5 lakh was found to have acted in collusion with the absconding accused suspected to be from China.Their modus operandi was to befriend the victims posing as a woman on Tinder or WeChat and then lure them to online forex trade and crypto currency with a promise of quick money.After the victim transferred money into an Indian bank account provided by the fraudsters as investment, the accused showed profits in dummy online trading account and even transferred some money to gain their trust. But once the victim had transferred a significant amount, they would cut off contact and disappear.Two accused, who spoke to one of the victims as ‘Mina’ on online dating platform Tinder and ‘Mike’ on social networking network WeChat, also used various aliases such as Nancy, Lilly, Sully and Sean. Rajesh told police that he had met Sean in China during a business visit in 2017 and, on his request, provided local bank account for online trading. When police analysed the three bank accounts provided to Mike and Mina by Rajesh, they noticed that seven from Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai and Chennai had deposited Rs 44 lakh into the accounts.When cops contacted the other depositors, they told police about forex trade an ..
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