With soccer betting app, Chinese dupes 1,200 of Rs 1,400 crore in 9 days | Ahmedabad News – Times of India
Alarmed by the scale of the operation, the Gujarat police formed an SIT to unmask the mastermind. The trail led to Woo Uyanbe from China’s Shenzhen region, who allegedly ran the scam in Patan and Banaskantha.
CID (crime) officers said they learned of the fraud in June 2022 when they found that some conmen were targeting people in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh through the “Dani Data” app. The Agra police initiated an inquiry, and the CID (crime) team discovered links to several people in north Gujarat.
“During our investigation, we learned that the Chinese national was in India between 2020 and 2022. He spent time in Patan and Banaskantha, where he met numerous locals and lured them with promises of wealth. He and his accomplices in Gujarat then launched the app in May 2022. It invited bets and promised substantial returns.”
On average, Uyanbe managed to steal Rs 200 crore per day, preying on people aged 15 to 75, mainly through football games, the officer said, adding: “The app was operational for nine days before suddenly becoming non-functional. It was then that people realised their invested money had been siphoned off.”
The CID (Crime) cyber cell subsequently apprehended nine individuals connected to the case, who allegedly aided Uyanbe in funnelling the money through hawala networks by setting up shell companies and moving the money into them.
However, by the time the Gujarat police swung into action in August 2022 after filing an FIR for cheating and violations under the IT Act in Patan, the orchestrator of this elaborate ruse had vanished, having slipped out of India to return to China.
The CID (crime) could not amass sufficient evidence against Uyanbe, and the state is yet to proceed with his extradition process. Police sources said the mastermind continues operating his network in Shenzhen, China, and neighbouring regions like Hong Kong and Singapore, deploying multiple apps for fraud. In March, the CID (crime) filed a charge-sheet in the case.
