Jaipur, April 3 The Rajasthan Police has cracked a cyber fraud racket offering "escort services," which was operating from a remote island near a dam in the Dungarpur district, and has arrested 12 people, officials said on Friday.
Acting on a tip-off received by the district cyber cell on Thursday, police raided a small island near the Som Kamla Amba dam in the district.
The accused were found in a secluded area, using their mobile phones to carry out cyber fraud, police said.
"Police arrested 12 accused after surrounding the area. During preliminary questioning, the accused made contradictory statements. An inspection of their mobile phones and social media accounts revealed that they were running a fake escort service to defraud people across the country," SP Manish Kumar said.
Police also seized one SUV, 25 mobile phones, 50 SIM cards, two debit cards, and Rs 10,000 in cash during the raid.
According to Kumar, the accused uploaded fake advertisements offering escort services and used objectionable images downloaded from the internet to lure their victims.
"The victims contacted the numbers listed in the advertisements, after which the accused trapped them to extort money. They persuaded the victims to select profiles and transfer advance payments into multiple bank accounts," the officer said.
During interrogation, the accused confessed to operating the racket and defrauding people, he added.
The accused have been identified as Naresh (19), Ganesh Patidar (20), Mehul Suthar (26), Ganesh Patidar (27), Prakash Patidar (36), Vijay Patidar (25), Hitesh Patidar (21), Tejpal Patel (26), Dinesh Patidar (32), Naresh Patidar (27), Bhavesh Patidar (27) and Manish Patidar (25), police said.