Three people were arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police for allegedly selling stolen vehicles on online selling websites, including OLX, according to a LinkedIn post by Azamgarh’s Superintendent of Police, Prof. Triveni Singh. He also said that these people allegedly created fake documents including Aadhaar cards to carry out the fraud. UP police’s PRO confirmed to MediaNama that the alleged fraudsters were arrested on September 19.

Notice to OLX: Singh said that the department will send a notice to OLX since its platform was misused in this case. He said that he has sought OLX’s fraud risk management policy for monitoring criminal activities on its platform. He has also asked if OLX is adhering to proper KYC (know your customer) norms.

Modus operandi: Singh explained that the gang was selling stolen vehicles on online selling websites using fake identities, and mostly posing as army officers or policemen.

The gang allegedly had three teams. One team would steal vehicles, the other would create fake documents such as Aadhaar Card, registration certificate (RC) and insurance using Photoshop. The third team posted pictures of the stolen vehicles and fake documents to target customers.

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