HYDERABAD: Telangana Cyber Security Bureau (TGCSB) Director Shikha Goel on Tuesday said that they are investigating bank officials’ involved in opening operating mule accounts, with action planned against those involved.
Goel revealed that four teams from the TGCSB had spent two weeks in Rajasthan, arresting 27 individuals linked to 29 mule accounts involved in 189 cybercrime cases in Telangana and 2223 cases nationwide.
In a recent arrest of a State Bank of India branch manager for colluding with fraudsters to open mule accounts for a commission, linked to a Rs 175 crore online scam,” Goel recalled.
Goel stated that there have been cases where mule accounts were opened in the name of a fictitious firm. “If an individual is opening an account, a duly diligent bank official needs to verify the details of the account,” she said, expressing how failure to verify basic details aids in cybercrime.
Further, she noted that banks have fraud detection machines that can identify if suspicious activity is taking place in an account. “If an account has had no transactions for six months, but suddenly sees 100 transactions in a month, the fraud detection mechanism should alert the official,” she explained.