TEHRAN – The Iranian Police have arrested six gambling gangs targeting internet users with phone and online scams, with a turnover of 12 trillion rials (around $42 million).

Since the beginning of the current [Iranian calendar] year (March 21), the police identified six criminal gangs after a thorough and careful investigative work, Cyber police chief Vahid Majid said.

Some 93 members of the gangs were captured while they committed fraud at their criminal den and introduced to judicial authorities, he stated.

Criminal evidence was confiscated, including 210 credit cards that belonged to other people used in gambling sites.

After a preliminary investigation, the Police found that the gang had connections with criminal people in gambling sites abroad.

Through several links in the field of renting bank accounts, the suspects have deceived people with excuses such as investing in the stock market, tax evasion, activities in the field of digital currencies, etc.

By checking the identified bank accounts while blocking more than 50 billion rials (around $180,000), it was found that the fraudsters have spent large sums of criminal funds on purchases from the commodity exchange and other domestic companies.

Majid earlier in 2021 said that in the past Iranian year, 53 people involved in seven betting and gambling groups were arrested. Moreover, some 3,000 websites and accounts active in social media have been identified and up to 800 persons have been handed to the judiciary in this regard.

As per Iranian law, designing, launching, and running betting and gambling websites are forbidden.

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