56 Punekars cheated of Rs 82 lakhs in work from home scam

Pune, June 18 – Officials from cyber crime cell of Pune city police have busted a fake company based in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, which duped people under pretext of lucrative returns in the name of  work from home schemes.

Preliminary investigation has revealed that the accused has cheated 56 persons from Pune to the tune of Rs 82 lakhs.

The arrested accused have been identified as Ramprakash Gupta (33) and Dhananjay Sharma (25), both residents of Ujjain. They worked with MTSI Advertising Pvt Ltd.

However the main accused Amol Inamdar and Prasanna Harne are said to be on the run.

The arrests were made following a complaint from Vishal Vasant Jadhav (31) from Shukrawar Peth. Jadhav has lodged against Inamdar and others with Faraskhana police station for allegedly duping him of Rs 50,000.

According to police, Jadhav had received a call from the company in 2014 that he can earn good money under the work from home concept. He was promised 24 % returns per month on the investment. He was required to open 100 advertising links everyday for 15 seconds each. In May 2014, Jadhav invested Rs 10,000 and he got 24 % return. Happy with the return, he invested Rs 50,000 in June 2014 but did not get the return. The accused also didn’t give back his money.

He had been asking the accused to return but in vain.

As the company failed to pay investors, some people lodged FIRs in Ujjain and Inamdar was arrested, while other accused were out on anticipatory bail. Later Inamdar secured bail and since then he is not traceable.

After Jadhav’s complaint, a team from Pune police cyber cell went to Ujjain and nabbed the duo. They were brought here on Friday. Police claimed to have recovered  two mobile phones, seven credit cards, four debit cards and two PAN cards which was being used by them.

Police officials said that the accused had also started another business for cheating people in the name of Shopping Sense Marketing. The accused used to charge Rs 10,000 to Rs 1 lakh for membership fee and lured with advertising messages. People were told that based on their membership fees they will get 10 to 100 daily messages at the rate of Rs 6.52 per message for 10 months. However people didn’t receive any money on their investments.

Police have appealed people to approach them if they have been cheated by such companies.

DCP (cyber crime cell) Deepak Sakore supervised the investigation team which included police inspectors Sunil Takawale, Deepak Lagad, assistant police inspector Sanjay Thenge, PSI Pravin Swami, and policemen Raju Bhise, Aslam Attar, Rajesh Jaba, Deepak Mane, Shirish Gawde, Avinash Darwade, Bhaskar Bharti and Ashwin Kumkar.