Surat: The Sarthana police have arrested six individuals involved in a large-scale online shopping scam that defrauded numerous people across India. The accused admitted that their fraudulent operation generated monthly profits between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 7 lakh by offering heavily discounted kitchen and household products, which were never delivered. It is estimated that over the period of 18 months, the scammers collected around Rs 20 crore.

The individuals arrested in connection with the scam are Ashish Hadiya, Sanjay Katariya, Parth Savani, Yash Savani, Sagar Khunt, and Dilip Paghdal.

Explaining the modus operandi of the gang, Sarthana Police Inspector M.B. Zala stated that the accused created several websites that mimicked popular e-commerce platforms, using domain names like offerkkart.shop, flipofferzone.online, flipofferkart.shop, and offerflipzone.shop. They advertised products typically valued at Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 for highly discounted prices of Rs 300 to Rs 400, enticing consumers to make payments via QR codes. Once the payment was received, the scammers failed to deliver any products.

Investigations revealed that the accused obtained bank accounts for prices ranging from Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 per account to facilitate their fraudulent transactions. Their operation had been running for more than 18 months. During raids at three rented shops in Surat, police seized eight laptops, 98 bank kits, 52 SIM cards, and 21 mobile phones. Analyzing the laptops further, investigators uncovered over 1,000 Gmail accounts tied to various bank accounts, demonstrating the vast scale of the scam.

In another tactic to avoid detection, the scammers ensured that their online offers were not visible to social media users within Gujarat. If locals had fallen victim to the scam, they could have easily filed complaints. However, out-of-state customers, facing a small Rs 300-400 loss, were less likely to pursue legal action in Gujarat, allowing the scam to continue for an extended period.

Police found that they had used at least 19 different web domains, such as offervillaa.shop and offerrzone.shop, each operational for only eight days before being abandoned. DeshGujarat