India-based cybergang busted for selling fake KFC franchises

It's finger-licking.... what happened to my $$$?

Police in India announced late last week they arrested four individuals accused of running fake websites in which they sold fraudulent franchises, including for fast-food chicken restaurant, KFC.

One businessman was scammed out of around $115,000 in exchange for the fake finger lickin’ good agreement. KFC was one of 28 companies the gang posed as. Tata, Herbal Ayurveda and Jockey were among the others.

Several individuals alleged to be the perps were arrested by the Cyberabad police, cops said, after being tracked via their IP address and hauled to the tech-focused Madhapur suburban area from the Uttar Pradesh city of Noida. The cybergang had advertised their illicit goods on social media and YouTube.

The Cyberabad Cyber Crime Wing has busted a fake franchise gang that was operating out of UP & Bihar. The gang had been cheating innocent people by creating fake websites & collecting personal details of individuals interested in setting up franchises of reputed establishments. pic.twitter.com/N1lefsz0rj

— Cyberabad Police (@cyberabadpolice) March 23, 2023

According to local media, the operation consisted of a skeleton crew of four individuals, although two others were brought in for questioning. There was a main operator, website developer, an advert person and a telecaller.

If someone showed interest in the fake website, they’d get hounded by calls and emails until payment was made. The calls were made from a Mumbai virtual number.

Cyberabad Police said during the raid they seized seven mobile phones, three laptops, five CPUs, an LED projector, cheque books, debit cards, and SIM cards.

The police department was on a roll as they also announced they busted a gang who were collecting and selling data of 168 million individuals.

Information belonging to 140 categories, including mobile numbers, tax ID, credit and debit cards of various banks, WhatsApp account details, Facebook account details, and frequent flyer data was also sold via call centers and yellow page services. ®