In a sweeping crackdown on online fraud, the cybercrime wing of Cyberabad police have detected 10 cybercrime cases and arrested 20 offenders from various States between October 22 and 28.

The operation also led to the seizure of 24 mobile phones and 19 SIM cards.

Of the 20 arrested individuals, 14 were linked to trading frauds, while a key highlight was busting of a ₹3 crore scam targeting a leading travel company’s online ticket booking and digital wallet system, leading to the arrest of five.

The accused were identified as identified as Chennupati Sivannarayana, Kadali Narayana Swamy, Anugula Rajkumar, Jadda Brahmaiah, and Pericherla Varma.

According to the police, the company, which operates across multiple southern States, reported irregularities between May and July this year after discovering discrepancies between the number of tickets booked and the revenue received. A subsequent audit revealed that certain registered users and internal agents had exploited a glitch in the company’s digital wallet refund process.

Investigation revealed that the accused allegedly recharged their wallets, booked tickets, and cancelled them immediately. Due to a software flaw, both the refund and the original wallet amount were credited back, effectively doubling their balance. By repeating this process multiple times, the fraudsters accumulated the inflated wallet balances and used them to book tickets for customers, diverting the collected fares into their personal accounts.

The manipulation resulted in a total loss of ₹3,00,91,683 to the travel company.

The Cyberabad police have urged businesses and individuals to conduct regular audits of digital payment and refund systems, maintain strict internal access controls, and immediately report any suspicious transactions to the National Cybercrime Helpline (1930) or through www.cybercrime.gov.in.