Cyberabad Police nabs Kondapur Scamsters Involved in Rs 4.15 Crore QR code Fraud
Kondapur: Economic offences wing(EOW) of Cyberabad arrested two men in connection with the QR code spoofing scam and swindled four crores on Saturday.
According to the police, the accused Yasireddy Anil Kumar and Mandala Raj Kumar, employees of Isthara Parks Private Limited company working in food courts at different locations indulged in QR code phishing. The accused replaced the legitimate company’s QR codes with forged ones resulting in a loss of Rs. 4.15 crores.
Based on the complaint from Mohammed Irshad Hussain, the authorised representative of M/s Isthara Parks Private Limited, EOW Cyberabad police booked a case and started investigation. According to the complaint, Isthara Parks Private Limited, headquartered in Kondapur, Hyderabad, operates in the hospitality industry and offers rental homes known as “co-living properties” in Hyderabad, along with running food courts in 16 cities across India. The complainant alleged that some employees of the company, working in various locations, placed forged QR codes for their personal benefit instead of the company’s QR codes and diverted payments to their personal bank accounts.
Accused used the cheated money to buy a plot
Investigation revealed that the accused Yasireddy Anil Kumar who is a floor manager in Isthara Parks Private Limited Company from March, 2023, had placed forged QR code at different outlets in Hyderabad of their own fake company same as Istharaa and Istha instead of original company ISTHARA and thereby they collected money from the company customers and diverted the collection money to their personal bank accounts.
Further probe revealed that the accused from the fraud spent two crore rupees and purchased a plot with 40 lakh rupees. “He gave Rs 70 lakh to his colleagues who helped in this offence, gave nearly 60 lakh to chitti holders and he spent the remaining amount on his personal use and debts. Further another accused Raj kumar who is his associate took 10 lakhs from him and he spent it for his personal expenditure and cleared his debts”, said EOW officials in an official statement. Further investigation is underway.