Police bust illegal payment aggregator, arrest 7 persons

Visakhapatnam: Visakhapatnam city police busted an illegal payment aggregator, ‘Peace Pay,’ which was not authorised by the RBI and providing services to several betting and investment scam websites.

Briefing the media here on Thursday, City Police Commissioner Shanka Brata Bagchi mentioned that upon receiving information from central agencies that a call centre was being operated by locals under the control of Chinese nationals engaged in various scams, including stock market scams, task-based scams and betting apps. The CP informed that based on credible information shared by the cybercrime police in Ahmedabad and Gujarat, raids were conducted and offenders were taken into custody.

During the raid at the flat near AN Beach Hospital, four young women and one man were found in possession of computers, mobile phones and SIM cards, as well as a list of hired bank accounts with substantial amounts of money. They were used for perpetrating scams and operating betting sites. Two primary suspects, Sairam and Girish, operate the scam centre, paying each employee Rs 25,000 as salary. The prime accused was also apprehended at a residence located at Visalakshinagar.

A large number of bank accounts, unregistered SIM cards, debit cards, laptops, desktops, transaction machines, counting machines, and checkbooks were seized from his residence.

It’s learnt that they were utilised to conduct fraudulent transactions orchestrated by Chinese individuals to defraud innocent victims under the guise of high profits from Chinese scams such as stock market schemes, task-based scams, FedEx scams and online betting platforms.

The operator obtained untraceable SIM cards and accounts from Delhi through courier services to operate the payment gateway. The members of the gang accessed a TRX Chinese website on a computer, which facilitated various online gaming and betting application gateways such as Peace Pay, Gogubet, and Wags of Ganga 7, among others. The prime accused Sairam, along with his friend Surya Mohan, who resided in Hong Kong, and Viyathan, operated a payment gateway without obtaining permission from the RBI.

Girish, a close friend of Sairam, operated a call centre for online betting promotions with a team of young girls. The effective teamwork of inspectors from cybercrimes and task force, along with their staff, successfully cracked the Chinese scam through their teamwork.

The police seized 9 laptops, 9 desktops, 65 mobile phones, 699 bank accounts passbooks along with cheque books, 135 proofless SIM cards, a bike, a car and 3 gold rings from the accused. The police arrested seven persons involved in the crime.