Chinese man makes football betting app, scams Indians of $168 million, flees to China

Police in the state of Gujarat in western Indiahave unearthed a major scam perpetrated by a Chinese man who made an app and duped Indian users to the tune of USD 168 million. Woo Uyanbe, the Chinese national, visited Gujarat, and collaborated with local individuals to create a football betting appthrough whichhe later duped 1200 Indian users.

Gujarat Police were alarmed by the scale of the operation. It formed a Special Investigation Team in order to find the mastermind. The investigators followed a trail that led them to Woo Uyanbe who was in China's Shenzhen region. It has been reported in media that the scam was run from Patan and Banaskantha in Gujarat.

Central Investigation Department (CID) officials said that they came to know of the fraud last year in June. They observed that scamsters were targetting people in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh through the "Dani Data" app. An inquiry was initiated by police in Agra and then the CID team found links to several people in north Gujarat.

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"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," said a police official quoted by The Times of India.

The huge scale of the scam means that Woo Uyanbe managed to steal USD 24 million per day. Those caught in the scam were aged 15-75

"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," said the police official quoted by The Times of India.

The CID cyber cell apprehended nine individuals connected to the case. They allegedly helped Woo Uyanbe to funnel the money through hawala networks with the help of shell companies they set up.

AnFIR for cheating and violations under IT Act was filed in Patan in August 2022.

Woo Uyanbe, however, managed to escape from India to China. The state is yet to go ahead with his extradition process. The report said that the mastermind continues to operate his network in Shenzhen in China and also from neighbouring regions like Hong Kong and Singapore. He has reportedly launched multiple such apps for fraud.

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