How 1,200 People In Gujarat Lost Rs 1,400 Crore Through A Betting App?

A Chinese national reportedly duped 1200 people in Gujarat through an online betting scam. Together, they have lost over Rs 1400 crore, the Gujarat Police said.

An SIT (Special Investigation Team) of Gujarat police, assigned with the responsibility of tracking down the scammer, has said that the individual behind the scam is identified as Woo Uyanbe, hailing from the Shenzhen region of China. Allegedly, he orchestrated the scam operations in the districts of Patan and Banaskantha.

What comes as the shocking part of the story is that he lured 1200 people to invest the money and duped Rs 1400 crore in just nine days, according to a report in The Times Of India.

How He Cheated The People?

He teamed up with several people from Gujarat to create an app called 'Dani Data' in May 2022. The football betting app invited people to invest money with the promise of giving substantial returns.

He operated the app for nine days where people from 15 to 75 age used the app while the Chinese national stole Rs 200 crore a day. After nine days, the app became dysfunctional and only then people realised that they have been duped.

The police department came to now about the scam in June 2022 that the conman has duped people from Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. "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.

Subsequently, the CID (Crime) cyber cell apprehended a total of nine individuals who were linked to the case. These individuals were suspected of assisting Uyanbe in channeling funds through hawala networks by establishing shell companies and transferring money into them. However, when the Gujarat police initiated action in August 2022, following the registration of an FIR for cheating and IT Act violations in Patan, the orchestrator of this intricate scheme had already disappeared. He managed to leave India and return to China.

Nonetheless, the CID could not gather substantial evidence against Uyanbe, and the process of seeking his extradition remains pending.