Crime News: Do you have complete information about the bank accounts opened in your name? Recently a case of big cyber fraud has come to light. Cybercriminals are engaged in committing big scams by renting bank accounts. This gang has links with Thailand, China, Dubai, Cambodia, and Malaysia. Mumbai Crime Branch has exposed this big cybercrime. The police themselves are surprised to see the things that have come to light in the investigation.
These gangs would open bank accounts in the name of people and rent or sell them to cybercriminals or online gaming scammers. Among the 5 people arrested by the police, there is also a woman. The Crime Branch Unit raided an office near Kandivali East Police Station. The police arrested Vaibhav Patil, Sunil Paswan, Aman Gautam, Khushboo Sundarjulia, and Ritesh Bandekar. During the raid, the police found 50 passbooks of different banks, ATM cards, swiping machines, two laptops, and several SIM cards.
Slum dwellers are being targeted
What has come to light in the investigation is that most of the bank accounts are in the name of slum dwellers. But someone else was operating them. The police also suspect that the bank officials may be involved in this. Did they do the KYC check of the bank account holders properly? Actually, from here, bank accounts and SIM cards were activated in the name of poor people and later they were used on rent. The police sent a fake customer, after which the whole matter came to light.
Accounts were opened for Rs 10,000 each
Some more shocking facts are coming to light in the initial investigation. Actually, this gang used to lure poor people to open bank accounts. A daily wage laborer was also given Rs 10,000 to open an account. Once the account was opened, the gang members would add their mobile numbers for OTP. This way, the person who owns the account would not even know about it and huge transactions would keep taking place from his account. These cybercriminals would use these accounts for fraudulent activities like “digital arrest” and online gaming. Police suspect that the reach of this network is beyond Mumbai as well.