COIMBATORE: Coimbatore city cyber crime police arrested a three-member gang, including a woman bank staff, for allegedly opening bank accounts without consent and for providing backend support to scammers in a stock market scam. Investigation to trace the online scammers is ongoing.
The arrested were identified as M Sivakumar (27) of Chandrapura near Bangalore in Karnataka, M Kumaresan (29) of Hosur and S Nithya (32) of Karapalli near Hosur.
The online scammers had allegedly duped 96 people across the country of several crores in a stock market scam, where the arrested persons would receive a commission of 1.4% for a transaction of Rs 1 crore. During investigation, the police found that the scammers had swindled Rs 50 lakh from a man in Coimbatore.
Nithya, an assistant manager at a private bank, allegedly assisted the scammers in opening bank accounts for various individuals without their consent. Kumaresan, had received funds from scammers through his bank account. Sivakumar acted as a mediator between the scammers and several bank account holders.
Police said complainant Joju Mathew (51) from Ganapathi in Coimbatore was approached by individuals posing as executives from a leading finance firm offering trading services. Later, he transferred Rs 50 lakh through multiple transactions to the bank account details provided by the scammers, who became unreachable afterwards. He filed a complaint with the Coimbatore cyber crime police on January, 2025.
Upon investigation, police traced the bank account used in the scam to Kumaresan, through which money was received and transferred. Additionally, Rs 90 lakh was found in his account, which hinted at his involvement in the scam, police said.
"Questioning Kumaresan led to the arrest of the other two suspects, who helped scammers open bank accounts without consent and by lending bank account credentials to scammers in exchange for commissions," police sources said.
Five mobile phones, nine simcards, 25 debit cards, 23 bank passbooks, 62 cheque books, three stamps, a bill book and a QR code scanner were seized from them.
"The three arrested persons had provided back end support to the scammers to facilitate the transfer of money. Investigation to trace the scammers is ongoing," said a police officer.