Gandhinagar, Sep 17 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Gujarat Police’s Cyber Centre of Excellence (CCoE) has arrested three alleged members of a cybercrime network accused of helping divert money in a Rs 3.76-crore digital arrest fraud, with their bank accounts linked to 29 complaints across 13 states.
The three accused were arrested from Rajasthan and Chandigarh following technical surveillance and field investigation into an FIR registered at the CID Cyber Crime Cell Police Station.
According to the police, the three accused had received around Rs 83.11 lakh and were allegedly operating on commission to facilitate the movement of money generated through cyber fraud.
The accused arrested from Chandigarh allegedly used applications on his mobile phone to carry out USDT transactions and transfer the cryptocurrency to members of the cyber fraud network.
The gang allegedly sent cash in return, which was received through his own and other bank accounts. Police said 29 cybercrime complaints registered in Gujarat and other states were linked to these transactions, involving around Rs 13.11 lakh.
The two accused arrested from Rajasthan allegedly opened a bank account in the name of a partnership firm and deposited around Rs 70 lakh of the money generated through the digital arrest fraud into the account with the intention of earning a commission.
They allegedly transferred the money thereafter. During examination of the accused persons' mobile phones, police recovered details of seven bank accounts.
"Checks on the national cybercrime portal showed that more than 29 cybercrime cases involving around Rs 83.11 lakh had been committed using these accounts," the police said.
The complaints linked to the accounts include one in Gujarat, two in Maharashtra, seven in Karnataka, three in Tamil Nadu, one in Rajasthan, one in Uttar Pradesh, one in Delhi, one in Madhya Pradesh, three in West Bengal, two in Andhra Pradesh, one in Telangana, two in Jharkhand and one in Odisha.
The investigation also uncovered what police described as a "new modus operandi" used by the absconding members of the network to divert the Rs 3.76 crore allegedly obtained from the complainant through digital arrest.
According to the police, the accused first targeted people who were looking for online loans.
They allegedly told such persons that they could obtain loans from a finance company named NEO FINANCE and asked them to submit the required documents.
The victims were subsequently allegedly made to download the PUSHBULLET application from the Play Store and were provided an ID and password to activate it.
Police said the accused then allegedly gained access to the victims' mobile phones and used their bank accounts to receive money obtained through the digital arrest fraud.
The money was subsequently transferred through bulk transactions to other bank accounts, allowing the network to divert the fraud proceeds while using the accounts of people who believed they were applying for loans.
The three arrested accused have been identified as Gopal Ram, a resident of Ajmer district in Rajasthan; Nekdin Kathat, a resident of Ajmer; and Deepak, a resident of Jind in Haryana.
Police said the accused allegedly used bank accounts opened in their own names to facilitate the transfer of cyber fraud proceeds for commissions.
In another part of the network, fraud proceeds were allegedly received in bank accounts, converted into USDT and supplied to other members.
The bank accounts examined during the investigation were allegedly used in digital arrest, investment, UPI-related and trading frauds. Four mobile phones were seized from the accused.
The Cyber Centre of Excellence advised people to verify the credentials of companies before taking online loans and to avoid handing over bank accounts, ATM cards, chequebooks or SIM cards to others.
It also cautioned against investment advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Telegram promising unusually high returns in a short period.
Source: IANS
Gopi Adusumilli is a Programmer. He is the editor of SocialNews.XYZ and President of AGK Fire Inc.
He enjoys designing websites, developing mobile applications and publishing news articles on current events from various authenticated news sources.
When it comes to writing he likes to write about current world politics and Indian Movies. His future plans include developing SocialNews.XYZ into a News website that has no bias or judgment towards any.
He can be reached at gopi@socialnews.xyz
This website uses cookies.
