Cybercrime police have arrested a 38-year-old man from Andhra Pradesh who allegedly cheated the public by showing an interest in buying their properties put up for sale on OLX.
Police said Devarenti Vinod Kumar Reddy borrowed the mobile phones of property sellers on the pretext of making online payments. He later ran off with the phones and stole money from e-wallets. He was previously convicted of similar crimes in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Northeast CEN crime police arrested Reddy from Anantapur while investigating a complaint filed by Jeevan S, 33, an engineer from Kodigehalli. Jeevan had listed a property-for-sale ad on OLX in September. A man messaged him on OLX and they shared numbers.
He met Jeevan at the said property in Peenya on October 2, said he liked the place and offered to make an advance payment through UPI.
He asked for Jeevan's phone and asked him to open an e-wallet. When Jeevan opened the app, Reddy diverted his attention and fled with the phone.
Thirty minutes later, he siphoned off Rs 1.40 lakh from two bank accounts linked to UPI. The accounts belong to Jeevan's father and mother, and he had linked them to his phone number.
Police investigations showed that Reddy ran a tea stall in Anantapur. He committed similar offences in Bidadi, Hubballi, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Goa among other places. He stole cameras from studios before turning to online crimes.
(Published 14 December 2022, 21:40 IST)
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