HYDERABAD: The cybercrime wing of the Hyderabad police busted an international racket of criminals, who are alleged to have looted over Rs 712 crore from over 15,000 victims, and arrested nine persons in connection with the crimes.
Links were also found to terror outfits, with the police suspecting the money was used to fund terrorism.
The police said the crime was done by Chinese nationals in collusion with Indian associates residing in Dubai. There were 748 complaints registered against the gang, with 133 cases from Telangana. Around 50 FIRs are also under investigation, the police said.
The police seized 17 mobile phones, two laptops, 22 SIM cards, four debit cards, documents of 33 companies registered by the Hyderabad-based accused for opening bank accounts, chequebooks, Yuan currency and a passport from the accused.
In the task-based investment fraud, money siphoned off from victims was converted into cryptocurrency and transferred to crypto wallets, the police said.
As per the details shared by the police, accused Prakash Mulchandbhai Prajapati, of Ahmedabad, supplied Indian bank accounts to his Chinese handlers Lee Lou Guangzhou, Nan Ye and Kevin Jun, and shared OTPs for transactions from Dubai and China through remote access apps, namely 'cooltech' and 'airdroid'.
The Chinese handlers are the brains behind this racket. They target victims through WhatsApp and Telegram platforms, and trap them to invest in tasks.
Prajapati, with the help of his associates in Dubai, converted the money to USDT (crypto) and transferred the same to Chinese handlers, for which he was paid up to three per cent commission on each transaction. The commission amount is collected through hawala channels in the form of importing e-bikes from China, the police said.
The police said they ascertained details of the case based on a complaint from a city-based techie, who lost Rs 28 lakh, following which four Hyderabad-based accused were picked up.
The techie received a part-time job offer on a ‘rate and review’ model through Telegram, where he was set targets of posting reviews and ratings. Initially, he was paid for the tasks, but later asked to invest to do more tasks and earn more, after they gained his trust. He went on to invest Rs 28 lakh with them.
The police said their investigation revealed that the four accused had gone to Lucknow, opened 33 companies using their IDs, current accounts for the companies and supplied them to Prajapati.
The four Hyderabad-based accused, Mohammed Munawar, Shameer Khan, Shah Sumair and Arul Das, were offered up to Rs 3 lakh for each set of company and current account by Munawar’s cousin, Naimuddin Wahiddin Shaik, of Mumbai.
They said they were lured by the offer to make a quick buck and stayed in Lucknow for a few weeks to get the work done.
Hyderabad police commissioner C.V. Anand said in the case, the techie had transferred money to six different accounts as directed by the fraudsters, and the same was routed to the Chinese masterminds through 48 accounts.
Analysis by the National Cyber Crime Reporting portal revealed that transactions amounting to '584 crore had taken place through these accounts.
Further, Prajapati was found to have supplied 65 more bank accounts, in which transactions amounting to '128 crore had taken place. The accounts, which had '10.53 crore at the time of the probe, were frozen, the police said.
“Shockingly, all these bank accounts have been opened with fake documents and fake KYC compliances. This is a grave issue and we have, in the past, apprised RBI, RoC and banks about how fraudsters are using accounts in their banks to loot people’s money. We will continue to sensitise them,” said Anand.
