Gujarat cops bust cyber crime racket; transactions worth Rs 1,455 cr found

They were arrested after one of their associates was caught with PAN cards and stamps of various firms during a routine vehicle check in Udhna, says SN Desai

International cyber criminals routed Rs 1,455 crore in six months using 89 bank accounts provided to them on commission basis by three men from Surat in Gujarat, police officials said on Friday.

This was found out after Kirat Jadwani, Meet Khokhar and Mayur Italia were arrested on May 28 for cheating and forgery after the recovery of 21 debit cards, 30 cheque books and six PAN cards issued to different individuals, Udhna police station inspector SN Desai said.  They were arrested after one of their associates was caught with PAN cards and stamps of various firms during a routine vehicle check in Udhna, he said.  "We found the trio had opened 165 bank accounts using documents of people who had applied for personal loans. They gave access to these accounts to cyber criminals for crimes such as digital arrest, hawala transfer, task fraud, betting, stock market fraud, online cheating and OTP fraud," said Desai.  The three came in contact with cyber criminals based in Cuba, Thailand and Malaysia through Telegram app, who offered to give them lucrative commission for use of these bank accounts, Desai said.  "We have so far received details of 89 of these 165 accounts from the bank. Transactions worth Rs 1,455 crore were done in these 89 accounts in just six months by cyber fraudsters. Each of these accounts were used for a few days to route the money to other bank accounts or cryptocurrency wallets," Desai informed.  None of these bank accounts are active because they were frozen immediately after the victims registered complaints, the official added. As per a preliminary probe, the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal has so far received nearly 2,500 complaints, including 265 in Gujarat, against these 165 bank accounts used by the cyber criminals to dupe victims across India in six months, Desai said.  'The trio used to collect documents of people by promising them to get a personal loan using their contacts. Using those documents, they used to open a bank account and return the documents to the owner claiming that the loan application was rejected.  Since they used to give their own mobile number to get an OTP, the applicant never realised that a bank account had been opened in their name," said Desai. In the beginning, the trio had given each bank account for a one-time rent of Rs 7 lakh to 17 lakh and then charged 3 to 4 per cent of the total transaction in the account, he said.  "In just six months, the three accused earned Rs 10 crore from commission as the transactions in each of these accounts used to continue all day. The total amount would go up to Rs 30 to 40 crore in each account," he said.