Delhi Police announced Wednesday that three people had been arrested for allegedly defrauding online gamers nationwide using unauthorized pre-hosted gaming websites.

According to the police, they were tricking people into betting on fictitious gaming websites on games including Teen Patti, snooker, casino, cricket, and poker. Small payments were made to the victims, in the beginning to earn their trust and demonstrate the legitimacy of the gaming website.

The three frauds, identified as Shriyansh Chandrakar, Ayush Dewangan, and Yash Ganvir, were arrested after a Sub Inspector from Cyber Police Station visited their premises as a food delivery boy, according to PTI.

The investigation started after a person duped out of Rs 1.49 lakh filed a complaint. Police claim that the gang members pretended to be customer service representatives for the fraudulent websites while using various forged SIM cards and mobile phones to make calls.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police Sagar Singh Kalsi, the victims were asked to make accounts on gaming websites and make deposits to buy coins for games. “The cheated amount was transferred to various accounts of various banks,” said Kalsi.

During the investigation, the police found that the suspects were all changing their locations frequently from Bangalore in Karnataka to Raipur in Chhattisgarh and Delhi in order to evade arrest. This made the arrests of the suspects even harder.

The official claimed that although Chhattisgarh police attempted to apprehend the gang members by setting up technical surveillance, they were unsuccessful since they were using fake SIM cards.

During the interrogation, Shriyansh Chandrakar disclosed that he had met Raj while attending a hotel management course at IHM, Bangalore. Chandrakar revealed that Raj operated a number of online gambling websites through which he deceived users and made quick cash.

Chandrakar joined Raj and began working from his Chhattisgarh after being seduced by the opportunity, along with his buddy Ayush Dewangan and Yash Ganvir.

“The accused used to purchase illegal fake online gaming websites from Raj. These websites contain various games for which a registration amount was asked from victims. The complainant was paid back small amounts to gain their trust and allure them to play more games. On winning the games, the amount keeps on piling in the virtual e-wallets of the complainant, but the amount is never paid back to the complainant,” Kalsi said.