Gaming App scam: ED raids premises of key link in Kolkata

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) was conducting raid and search operations in a residential complex on the southern outskirts of Kolkata on Tuesday in connection with an investigation into a multi-crore gaming app scam in the country.

The ED team was accompanied by the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF).

Early in the morning, the team of ED officials reached a residential complex at Kalikapur on Kolkata's outskirts and started conducting raid and search operations at an office-cum-residence on the second floor of a building within the housing complex.

Although the central agency officials were tight-lipped on the details of the particular gaming app in relation to which the raid and search operations are being conducted, sources said the total scam involvement in the case is over Rs 100 crore.

Sources also said that the money invested by the duped investors through this app was first converted into dollars and then parked in China. In this entire case, sources said, this particular office at Kalikapur acted as an important hub for such dubious monetary transactions.

Besides Kolkata, the sources said, the operators of the gaming app also had operations centres in other cities and towns throughout India.

Sources further said that the modus operandi of the scam was like many other gaming apps against whom ED had been conducting probe operations for quite some time.

Initially, the investors were allured to invest smaller amounts against promises of hefty returns and in the initial dealing those promises were fulfilled and the investors used to win lucrative amounts. Once the target for setting the greed for even higher returns was set in the minds of a section of the investors, thereafter the app operators used to allure them to invest higher amounts.

Thereafter, the actual scam started where the linked bank accounts of the investors were blocked from payments being credited there.