The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Monday warned against illegal digital payment gateways being used for money laundering operations. The ministry in a notification said the illegal payment gateways are being created using mule and rented bank accounts.
“Nation-wide raids by Gujarat Police and Andhra Pradesh Police reveal that trans-national criminals have created illegal digital payment gateways using mule/rented accounts. These illegal infrastructure facilitating money laundering as a service are used for laundering proceeds of multiple nature of cybercrimes,” the notification read.
— PIBHomeAffairs (@PIBHomeAffairs)
“Some of the payment gateways identified during the operation are PeacePay, RTX Pay, PoccoPay, RPPay etc. These gateways are learnt to be providing money laundering as a service and are operated by foreign nationals,” a government statement said.”These mule accounts are controlled remotely from overseas. An illegal payment gateway is then created using these mule accounts which are given to criminal syndicates for accepting deposits on illegal platforms like fake investment scam sites, offshore betting and gambling websites and fake stock trading platforms, etc.,” the statement said.
It said the proceeds of such crimes are immediately layered into another account as soon as the crime proceeds are received.
“Bulk Payout facility provided by banks are misused for the same,” it added.
Warning of consequences, the advisory said: “Illicit funds deposited in such bank accounts can lead to legal consequences, including arrest. Banks may deploy necessary checks to identify misuse of bank accounts that are used for setting up Illegal Payment Gateways.”
The MHA also urged citizens to report any suspicious activity by calling the national cybercrime helpline at 1930 or visiting the official cybercrime reporting website, www.cybercrime.gov.in.
