Jagran correspondent, New Delhi. The Cyber Cell of Delhi's North District police station has arrested nine members of two inter-state gangs that provided bank accounts to cyber criminals to commit cyber frauds. They were arrested from Gurugram, Jaipur and Ghaziabad. Apart from providing bank accounts, these gangs, along with cyber criminals, were also engaged in cheating people across the country on a large scale through investments, part time jobs, digital arrests and fake accounts.
Used to search for victims through social media
The accused were using layered banking channels and social media platforms to cheat people across the country. They were identified through technical investigation including checking of call detail records and IMEI. Eight mobile phones and eight SIM cards were recovered from their possession.
Arrests made from different places
According to DCP North District Raja Banthia, among the arrested accused, Himanshu Sharma is a resident of Deep Vihar Colony, Sirsi Road, Jaipur, Rajasthan and is a graduate. He was working in a call center in Gurugram for a year.
Abhijeet Lamba is a resident of Jaipur and is a graduate. Sahil Joshi is a resident of Alwar, Rajasthan and is a graduate.
Mannu is a resident of Kamalpur, Burari. Ajay is a resident of Khari Baoli, Aniket, Loni, Ghaziabad, Ganesh Rathi, Loni, Praveen, Begumpur and Piyush, JJ Colony, Saraswati Vihar.
Gave a link to join the Telegram channel
Cyber Cell police station had received the complaint of a victim named Suman Kumar, resident of Malka Ganj, through the National Crime Reporting Portal. He is doing graduation from Delhi University. In the complaint, he alleged that he received a WhatsApp message offering a part-time job. After showing interest, he was given a link to join a Telegram channel, where he was assigned some tasks. After completing the initial tasks, they received small payments to reassure them.
After this, they were instigated to do work involving huge sums of money on the instructions of the fraudsters. Acting on his instructions, the complainant transferred a total of Rs 93 thousand to different bank accounts. When the fraudsters asked for more money, the complainant realized that he had been cheated. He lodged an FIR on this.
Money is being sent from same type of Mule accounts
The police team, led by ACP Vidhushi Kaushik and Inspector Manish Kumar, investigated the complaints received on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal and through technical surveillance, bank trail analysis and digital forensic investigation, it was revealed that the amount defrauded from different cyber fraud cases was being sent through the same type of mule bank accounts.
One such bank account, which was in SBI Burari branch, was receiving cyber-crime money through several layers. Further investigation found links to five separate NCRP complaints, which revealed that this fraud was being carried out in an organized and coordinated manner.
Digital forensic investigation was also done
Based on these findings, preliminary investigation confirmed the account holder and his associates to be active in receiving, withdrawing, layering and transferring fraudulent funds as part of an organized cyber crime syndicate. After this, more than 100 mobile numbers and IMEI data were examined and detailed technical analysis was done, along with money transactions in several bank accounts and digital forensic investigation was also done.
Were transferring the fraudulent amount to the accounts
To trace the location of the accused, access details were obtained from different online platforms. After which everyone was arrested. During interrogation, Himanshu Sharma told that he had opened bank accounts and after taking seven thousand rupees for each account, he handed over the net banking ID, password, corporate ID and SIM cards related to the accounts to Abhijeet Lamba and Sahil Joshi. Abhijeet Lamba and Sahil Joshi told that they had given the bank account details and SIM card to other associates Rahul and Akash for Rs 25 thousand for each account. These accounts were being used to transfer fraudulent amounts.
Helped in money laundering process
Mannu worked as the primary handler and operational coordinator of the syndicate. He gave his bank account to receive the defrauded amount and coordinated the withdrawal of money and layering of funds. He got in direct contact with Telegram-based buyers and earned commission for facilitating fraudulent transactions. Ajay, a close associate of Mannu, helped him find the Mule bank account, withdraw money from ATM and cheque. He coordinated with middlemen to obtain accounts and facilitated the money laundering process.
Gave my bank account to get the defrauded amount
Aniket played a key role in enhancing the operational capacity of the syndicate by acquiring multiple Mule Bank accounts of different people. He also helped arrange high-limit corporate bank accounts to conduct large transactions. Ganesh Rathi gave his bank account to receive the defrauded amount. He helped Aniket find more Mule accounts and attended meetings related to securing corporate accounts and earned commission for his participation.
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