10 held in Rs 6.36 cr online forex scam

Mumbai: The Mumbai crime branch has busted a fake foreign-exchange (forex) platform racket which was being operated from Dadar. At least 500 people have been cheated to the tune of Rs 6.36 crore. Crime branch unit III has so far arrested 10 persons from the office run as part of the racket. The gang had been operating a website 'moneytrading.com' promising handsome returns on forex trading to lure gullible potential victims.

The crime branch officers raided the office at M/s Multi Business Centre Service, located near Swami Narayan Temple in Dadar east. Following the raid, the officials fo-
und that the accused were running bogus forex platform to lure people into investing money in the foreign exchange trade. “The accused had made a website for substantiating their business and were promising handsome returns on trading in the foreign exchange. The payments were received using an online application ‘Pay You’. The money received via the app was credited in the personal account of the accused persons,” said Dilip Sawant, deputy commissioner of police (crime branch).  

Those arrested were identified as Tanveer Tahirali Shaikh, Asad Tahirali Shaikh, Shahrukh Tahirali Shaikh, Vyankatchalam Mariappa, Fayyaj Umer Shaikh, Sanjay Kap-
oor Vaishnav, Parvez Maqbool Khan, Mohammad Jafar Shaikh, Imran Maqbool Khan and Azaruddin Daudali Shaikh who were operating the racket.

During the search, the unit III officials also seized 96 laptops and 17 mobile phones that were used to communicate with the victims. The phones and laptops will now be sent for conducting forensic analysis and to retrieve data. The police are trying to identify more victims.