CHENNAI: Investigation by the Avadi police into a cybercrime where Rs 38 lakh was swindled from a retired college lecturer in a ‘digital arrest’ scam has led the cops to an accused whose 13 bank accounts were used in at least 135 similar scams.
The accused may have been involved in cheating multiple victims of several crores of rupees through these scams and the illegal proceeds could have been laundered, sources said.
Police said that in July, Veppanchavadi resident Mary Janet was ‘digitally arrested’ by scamsters pretending to be officers of ‘CBI’, ‘ED’ and ‘Mumbai cyber crime’. They extorted Rs 38.16 lakh of her funds under the guise of ‘checking if the source of the money was legal’. This has been the modus operandi used in several such scams across India.
During investigation, the team led by Avadi cybercrime inspector Pravin Kumar found that Rs 5 lakh of Mary Janet’s money had been transferred to one mule account belonging to the accused Y Bijoy (33), a resident of Anna Nagar in Chennai. Probing further, they found that Bijoy was operating at least 13 accounts in the name of his mother, wife, friends and relatives. Some were also in the name of total strangers living far away, in bank branches at least 15-20km away.
Data from the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCCRP) showed that these 13 accounts operated by Bijoy were involved in at least 135 complaints filed by residents from across India regarding cyber scams of a similar magnitude totally amounting to several crores. Apart from digital arrest, these accounts were used to launder money scammed from people using online share trading and part-time job offer scams as well, police said.
‘Scam probe may lead to handlers in Cambodia’
Bijoy, an unemployed man who had studied till class 12, was found to be withdrawing money from these accounts through cheques and converting them into crypto-currency to send it to beneficiaries abroad indicating a laundering exercise, police said.
“He earned a fixed percentage as incentive for this. His accounts were being frozen one after the other for being used as mule accounts and he continued to open fresh ones, indicating complete awareness of his actions,” said an investigator, adding that the links to this scam could lead to handlers in Cambodia and Dubai. Bijoy was arrested after intense surveillance by Avadi police.