21 farm laborers from a village called Molipur in the Mehsana district of Gujarat organized a fake Indian Premier League or IPL to dupe large sums of money from Russian bettors.
The conmen nearly pulled off the perfect scam as the fake IPL progressed through to the quarter-final stage before the organizers of the event were caught by the state's police.
The news spread like wildfire on social media with even Harsha Bhogle reacting to it after he came to know that a mimicry artist tried to copy his voice while commentating on the fake IPL.
“Can't stop laughing. Must hear this ‘commentator',” Harsha Bhogle tweeted.
Meanwhile, there were others, who also reacted to the so-called “fake IPL.”
“Indians are so advanced, they will scam the scammers,” an Indian cricket fan tweeted.
“I'm from Gujarat and I'm proud of them,” a second said while taking a sarcastic dig at the scamsters.
“My lord this has to be the funniest thing I've heard all week,” a third claimed.
“Wow, I'm not aware of this one. Hilarious,” a fourth added.
“The effort put in is genuinely impressive,” a fifth declared.
“Clearly it was a scam but top marks for inventiveness,” a sixth pointed out.
Even industrialist Anand Mahindra came out with his opinion on the whole episode of “fake IPL.”
“Just incredible. And if they had called it the ‘Metaverse IPL' they could have gotten a billion dollar valuation!” Anand Mahindra wrote on the microblogging platform.
Just incredible. And if they had called it the ‘Metaverse IPL’ they could have gotten a billion dollar valuation! https://t.co/62j974dL2U
— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) July 11, 2022
The effort put in is genuinely impressive https://t.co/2YzPFKgUhO
— Munk (@_Drunkenmunk) July 11, 2022
Can't stop laughing. Must hear this "commentator" pic.twitter.com/H4EcTBkJVa
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) July 11, 2022
Indians are so advanced, they will scam the scammers. https://t.co/YYd3wQCa0P
— Silencio (@hay_banda) July 12, 2022
Americans: “how do we defeat Russia?”
Indians: “hold my dhokla” https://t.co/bS3RuhAjnC
— Ridwan (@rid_aman) July 11, 2022
Must admit that I'm very impressed with this con! https://t.co/NB8CaVEclc
— Stop the Gaustapo (@atlasdanced) July 11, 2022
According to police officials who are investigating the case, the so-called “IPL” began three weeks after the conclusion of the actual tournament, but the Russian punters still fell for the con because the Indian scammers had made elaborate arrangements to create an “actual” competition.
To execute their plans, the scammers leased a farm before converting it into a cricket field. Subsequently, they installed halogen lamps to organize night matches as was the norm in the original IPL.
“They installed a cricket pitch, complete with boundary lines and halogen lamps”, Inspector Bhavesh Rathod, the investigating police officer of the case told reporters.
“Besides this, the accused had set up high-resolution cameras on the ground and used computer-generated graphics to display scores on a live-streaming screen,” he added.
During matches, the farm laborers masqueraded as cricketers by wearing official shirts of IPL teams.
All the games were broadcast on a YouTube channel named “IPL”.
The real-life scammers even flaunted several walkie-talkies on the five HD cameras that were installed to give a feel of reality to the Russian punters.
Crowd-noise sound effects from previous matches which were downloaded from the web further made the matches look authentic to the Russian audience.
All these punts from the Russians were taken on an “official” Telegram channel created to dupe them.
The architect of the con was an individual named Shoeb Davda who returned to the village after working in a Russian pub popular for taking bets on cricket matches.
“Shoeb hired the farm of Ghulam Masih and installed halogen lights there. He readied 21 farm laborers, promising them ₹400 per match. Next, he hired cameramen and bought t-shirts of IPL teams,” the police official said.
Unfortunately for the gang, however, the first installment of ₹300,000 they had received from the Russians was confiscated by the police after they caught them red-handed.
“Shoeb would take live bets over the Telegram channel. He would instruct Kolu, the umpire, over a walkie-talkie to signal fours and sixes. Kolu communicated the same to the batsman and the bowler. Acting on the instructions, the bowler would deliver a slow ball, enabling the batsman to hit it for a four or a six,” Bhavesh Rathod elaborated.
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