PUNE: The cyber cell of the Pimpri Chinchwad police on Wednesday claimed to have unearthed a Rs4-crore online share trading racket involving the use of bogus online trading app, money mule accounts (individuals allowing someone else use their bank accounts to transfer money for commission) and routing of money to Hong Kong via USDT cryptocurrency.
Over the last one week, five people were arrested from Pune. Rs7 lakh, 12 cheque books of different banks, eight debit cards, seven cellphones and a cash counting machine were recovered from them.
The police have so far identified 120 money mule accounts, including 80 in banks in Pune, used for transactions in the crime. They figured in at least 75 complaint applications submitted to the Pimpri Chinchwad police.
“Tingrenagar resident Junaid Mukhtar Qureshi (21), who was into online share trading, first came in contact with their Hong Kong-based handler, partially identified as ‘Greg’. The latter asked Qureshi to secure mule accounts for him to facilitate their activity,” Pimpri Chinchwad’s deputy commissioner of police Sandip Doiphode said.
“Qureshi then roped in the other suspects – Salman Mansoor Shaikh (22), Abdul Aziz Ansari (23), Aqif Anwar Arif Anwar Khan (29) and Taufiq Gaffar Shaikh (22). They together managed to secure 120 money mule accounts from unsuspecting friends and associates,” the DCP said.
Salman, Abdul Aziz and Taufiq are residents of Lohegaon Road, while Aqif is from Kondhwa. Qureshi earlier worked with a call centre. The remaining four were doing odd jobs, including food and parcel deliveries, the officer said.
Doiphode said, “The money mule accounts were used to transfer money of victims of the fraud in the name of online share trading. Post-transfer, the five suspects would withdraw the cash from these accounts and route the same to their handler in Hong Kong via USDT cryptocurrency. In exchange, they received a commission from their handler.”
Cyber cell’s assistant police inspector Pravin Swami said, “The breakthrough came during the technical analysis of a cellphone and scrutiny of a bank account in Pimpri Chinchwad. A 46-year-old woman victim of fraud from Baner had transferred Rs35.6 lakh to it in Feb this year.”
The woman had told the police in her complaint on Feb 22 that she had come across a post on her photo- and video-sharing social networking account regarding share market classes and investment, and it carried an embedded link. “On clicking the link, her number was added to a WhatsApp group – ‘Schoder Academy VI’. She was then told to submit an institutional demat account form and transfer money to different bank accounts (money mule accounts) to purchase initial public offering (IPO) shares,” said Swami.
“The woman transferred Rs31.6 lakh in phases to these accounts and another Rs4 lakh towards charity donation. Later, the crooks stopped communicating with her,” the officer said.
Cyber cell sub-inspector Sagar Poman said, “Our team started working on technical details and analysis of the phone number used by the crooks in this case. We also studied the bank account, where her money was transferred. This eventually led us to the suspects.”
Poman said most of these 80 bank accounts were of relatives and friends of the arrested five men. “They were using these accounts by giving some money to their friends,” Poman said.
