Hyderabad: How KPHB man was lured into fake ITC Franchise

Hyderabad: Police have busted a gang of online investment scammers who were luring gullible people with sweet business deals.

Police said a man found an advertisement for ITC FMCG distribution on “itcdistributor.com” in November 2023 and applied for a dealership in KPHB colony, Hyderabad. Then few persons who claimed to be ITC employees sent dealership details and registration forms via email and WhatsApp.

He was asked to deposit a registration fee of Rs.25,000 and subsequently. They collected a total fee of Rs.7,50,000 as a processing fee. Little did he know that the franchise fraud was being operated from Patna, Bihar.

Police said the modus operandi includes creating a fake website of a reputed company and promoting it on Google ads. “Whenever a person looking to venture into franchise business searches on Google, this website will be thrown up first by the Google ads. When the person visits the website, he is asked to fill in some details via the registration form. Gathering these details, the telecallers connect with the victims as employees of ITC and convince them to take the franchise. In the process the victims pay registration fee and processing fee to the tune of lakhs of rupees,” Police said.

Police have identified the people running the online franchise fraud business.

They include Dheeraj Kumar who acted as the organizer of the scheme. He used to coordinate with accomplices and manage the financial aspects. Ankit handled the website and generated leads of interested persons for the fraudulent scheme. Chandan supplied bank accounts for money transfers and facilitated cash withdrawals. Dheeraj's associates, Amit Kumar and Gaurav Kumar were tele-callers who collected money, by managing calls and making cash withdrawals.

Police said Raushan Team provided support and assistance to the tele-callers, ensuring smooth operation. Others, like Vikas, Raja, Abhishek, Suraj, and others, acted as tele-callers to convince victims and extract money from them.

Cybersecurity Police have now issued an advisory cautioning people against falling prey to such deals.

The dos and don’ts include:

Check for authenticity of the website

When searching for a website, of the many results, Look for direct official websites rather than those suggested by Google ads.

Do not enter into any fraudulent and fake websites and enter your details.

Don’t respond to the calls received on the behalf of company claiming to be employees.

Don’t transfer any amount to any of the accounts.

Don’t share personal IDs/ KYC documents with any.

Report immediately to the police on 1930/www.cybercrime.gov.in for any cyber-related frauds.