AHMEDABAD: A chilling cyber fraud racket involving a marriage trap and crypto lure to dupe an elderly lawyer of Rs 57 lakh was busted in Gujarat, exposing a wider Chinese-linked syndicate operating through rented bank accounts.
The fraud racket spanned across Ahmedabad, Dubai and Cambodia.
What began as a promise of love quickly spiralled into a calculated financial ambush, and as the illusion deepened, the money trail led investigators into the corridors of an international cyber fraud network.
An elderly lawyer from Ahmedabad, hoping to start a new life in Italy, found himself ensnared in a sophisticated scam where a young woman, posing as a prospective partner, not only gained his trust but strategically steered him into investing Rs 57 lakh in cryptocurrency, only for the entire amount to vanish without a trace.
As the complaint reached Ahmedabad Police, the investigation picked up pace, and almost immediately, a crucial breakthrough emerged when Rs 9 lakh from the defrauded amount was traced to accounts linked with Tahir and Maqsood.
“The money trail was the first crack in the syndicate’s wall. Once we tracked Rs 9 lakh, the network began to unravel rapidly,” a Police official stated, underlining how digital footprints exposed real-world operatives.
The probe intensified, revealing many names.
Adnan and Ejaz's names surfaced with their bogus companies that acted as conduits for siphoning off funds. They were swiftly taken into custody.
But the chain didn’t stop there; it led investigators to Omkar Bharti, the man pulling strings behind fake bank accounts, who, upon arrest, revealed a new chapter in the case, linking the operation to Delhi-based handler Sunny Mago.
“These weren’t random accounts; they were rented identities, systematically deployed for high-value cyber fraud transactions,” officials revealed, emphasising the organised nature of the crime.
Thereon, the operation took a more sinister turn as it was uncovered that account holders, often financially vulnerable individuals, were transported to Delhi, housed in hotels, and used as pawns during large transactions.
Sunny, acting as the ground operator, ensured these accounts were activated at the right time and once the fraudulent transfers were complete, commissions ranging from 5 to 10 per cent were distributed, keeping the racket profitable.
And looming over this entire network was the mastermind Mayur Savaliya, now lodged in a Dubai jail, allegedly orchestrating the scam remotely for a Chinese cyber syndicate.
“Even from behind bars, the mastermind’s network remained active, indicating a deeply entrenched and decentralised fraud system,” investigators noted.
The digital trail further widened, revealing that the fake Facebook profile used to lure the Ahmedabad lawyer was being operated from Cambodia, adding yet another international layer to the scam.
Meanwhile, Sunny’s background poses a telling picture: An IT graduate who turned to cybercrime following business losses, later lured by Savaliya in Dubai with promises of quick money through illegal account operations.
As the investigation proceeded, four bank accounts linked to five shell companies, each acting as a channel for fraudulent transactions worth crores were identified.
Shockingly, 41 cyber fraud complaints across multiple states have already been linked to these accounts, all categorised under Layer-1 transactions, indicating direct victim-to-account fund transfers.
“This is just the surface; the scale suggests a much larger network still active, with more arrests likely in the coming days,” officials warned, hinting at a deeper nexus yet to be exposed.
Now, with multiple accused behind bars and the international links under scrutiny, the Ahmedabad Crime Branch has widened its probe, focusing on the recruitment network that sourced bank accounts, a critical cog in the cybercrime machinery.