Noida Police bust fake airline ticket scam, 13 arrested in cyber fraud

Noida Police arrested 13 individuals in a major cyber fraud bust. The racket targeted foreign nationals with a fake airline ticket booking scam, duping them of approximately USD 1.05 million through sophisticated online and social media tactics.

Noida Police have busted a cyber fraud racket and arrested 13 persons involved in a fake airline ticket booking scam targeting foreign nationals. During the investigation, police also recovered 13 laptops, 16 mobile phones, and other digital devices used in the commission of cybercrime.

According to officials, acting on technical intelligence and local inputs, it has arrested 13 accused persons from Sector 63 for allegedly running a cyber fraud racket in the name of fake airline ticket bookings targeting foreign citizens.

Modus Operandi of the Scam

The officials stated that the accused targeted citizens of the United States and Europe by running paid advertisements on Google Ads and Facebook under the guise of travel and airline ticket booking support services. When foreign nationals contacted the numbers provided in the advertisements, the calls were routed to dialler software running on the accused persons' laptops.

The accused then impersonated airline or travel agency representatives and lured victims by offering discounted flight tickets. Payments were subsequently collected in US dollars through international payment gateways, along with other sensitive information. Officials said that in several cases, fake tickets were issued, while in others, no tickets were provided. Most tickets were for travel scheduled months later, allowing the accused to delay detection of the fraud. The accused would then frequently change their phone numbers and systems.

Scale of Fraud and Evidence

Police added that analysis of the recovered devices revealed transactions worth approximately USD 1.05 million (around ₹10 crore), along with data of foreign victims, confirming the operation as an organised international cyber fraud network.

Profile of the Accused

Officials further stated that the accused are well-educated and use American and European accents to build trust and quickly trap victims.

The arrested accused have been identified as Ravi Khurana, Deepak Kumar, Shobhit Dixit, Dilip Pandey, Shubham Chaudhary, Sahib Chauhan, Ritwik Ray, Himanshu Malik, Pratyaksh Sharma, Jitesh Kamra, Dev Agrawal, Aarti, and Swati Raghav. (ANI)

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