Four people were detained by the Mumbai Police's north region cyber division for allegedly operating a pan-Indian cybercrime ring and defrauding OLX consumers by pretending to be purchasers.

In a cooperative effort with the police of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, the cyber investigators detained the suspects and found nine phones, over 800 SIM cards, and debit cards from 32 different banks. Four guys were taken into custody: two from Uttar Pradesh, one from Jaipur, and one from Bharatpur.

When a top executive from a private company fell for the scam, the authorities started looking into the racket. He created an OLX ad in an attempt to sell some of his furnishings. When the accused got in touch with him, he said he would purchase it.

Balsingh Rajput, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber), stated: "The accused informed him that they would be providing an advance of Rs 9,000 to complete the transaction. The victim objected, saying it wasn't required, but they persisted and gave him a QR Code that they wanted him to scan.

It was a reverse QR code with Rs 9,000 pre-loaded into it, meant to receive the money rather than deliver it. The money was taken out of the victim's account after he scanned the code, he said.

38 phones and 835 mobile numbers were discovered by the police throughout their investigation, and they were connected to the bank accounts where the money had been received.

The accused include Bharatpur, Rajasthan residents Sarvasukh Rujdar (37), Tulsiram Meena (25), Ajit Poswal (19), and Irsad Sardar (25).

They have been charged with fraud, criminal conspiracy, cheating, and violating several Information Technology Act provisions. The suspects have been placed under arrest by the police until January 4.