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When Gopal Singh, a New Delhi resident, landed a job in Gurugram neighbouring the national capital last September, he set his sights on an Ola electric scooter. On the one hand, his efforts to apply for finance through the scooter-maker’s app and website were failing, and on the other, ad pop-ups promising easy online booking and financing options started appearing on Facebook and Instagram.
Little did Singh know the lure of convenience would lead him right into a trap set by an organised group of scammers, who would swindle him of ~Rs 30,000 ($360).
“I clicked on one of these ads and submitted my number for a callback,” Singh recalled. Soon enough, his phone rang, and a voice on the other end claimed to be an Ola executive. They told him about an offline process to buy the scooter. Several instructions later, Singh paid the amount as advance.
It was another demand for Rs 13,000 ($155) as “delivery charges” that ticked Singh off. He later found that Ola had no offline option to make a purchase or a booking linked to his name. He filed a report with the police, who swiftly intervened and
busted
busted
The Hindu
20 arrested for duping over 1,000 of ₹5cr. on pretext of selling Ola e-scooter
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a racket operated by people across India—Karnataka in the south, New Delhi in the north, and Bihar and West Bengal in the east.
The entire ordeal exposed not only the organised nature of cybercrime but also the rise of syndicates exploiting tech giants Google and Meta and e-marketplaces such as Quikr to exploit users. So much so that both the FIR and chargesheet clearly state that the scam originated with Singh clicking on a link on Meta’s photo-sharing app Instagram.
The Ken’s review of copies of six FIRs and three chargesheet filed in similar cases in Mumbai in the western state of Maharashtra, Nuh in the northern state of Haryana, and Delhi reveals a pattern of tech platforms and marketplaces being turned to account, with scammers paying for fraudulent ads to deceive users.
Varun Singla, Nuh’s superintendent of police who carried out raids with over 100 cops at 320 areas across the district in Haryana on 27 April, said: “During interrogation, we found that a majority of the accused were using Facebook for scamming.” Overall, the police booked 65 suspects and filed 11 FIRs.
Despite low per-capita ad revenue, Big Tech spends a lot of money and effort in India to ensure a clean ad ecosystem and deliver adequate returns for advertisers—especially because it’s their largest user market.
