The Mangaluru police arrested a 29-year-old man from Banavasi in Uttara Kannada district, who is allegedly involved in 21 cyber fraud cases, including the one registered in the city, where he cheated a resident of ₹2.5 lakh using the OLX app.

In a press release issued on Sunday, the police stated that Ravichandra Manjunath Revankar was arrested at a location in Hosapete. After tracing the location of Revankar, the Cyber Economic and Narcotic Crime (CEN) police, who had gone to Shivamogga in connection with a cybercrime case, rushed to Hosapete and arrested him. He was produced before the jurisdiction court magistrate on Sunday, the release stated.

Inquiry by the police revealed that Revankar had been cheating people for the past three years by posting about the sale of a car on the OLX app. He had 21 bank accounts. He used eight SIM cards, for which more than 80 cases of cyber fraud have been linked and registered. Revankar used a mobile phone and a SIM card for a few days to cheat, and then disposed of the phone through OLX and destroyed the SIM card, the police said.

The case of cheating of ₹2.5 lakh through OLX app was registered in Mangaluru CEN police station on Saturday.

Cautioned

In a message posted online alerting people about frauds using OLX, Quickr, 99acres and Facebook online marketplaces, the city police asked people not to proceed when a fraudster sends a QR code “to receive payment”. The police advised people not to share OTPs and instead recommended that payments be made through secure payment methods. The seller or buyer profile should be checked before making payments. Beware of fraudsters misusing Armed Forces names, photos and fake IDs. In case of online fraud, people can dial 1930, the police said.

Similar alert was issued by the police on Saturday asking people not get cheated by fake investment offers.