Hyderabad police busts mule gang and seizes 62 bank accounts opened by them
Charminar:Termed as ‘mule’- they are recruited by cyber criminals-their only job is to open the bank accounts and forwarded the details to cyber criminals. Although it looks simple, crores of fraud money was laundered through these accounts and origin of money is obscured making it difficult for law enforcement agencies to trace the criminals. Hyderabad cyber crime police busted one such gang and arrested five members.
In a joint operation conducted by East Zone task force Team along with Cyber Crime Police, Hyderabad City and Telangana State Cyber Security Bureau arrested five mules were identified- Arif Saifi, Mohd. Abdul Naveed,Sohail Khan, Mohd. Dade Khan, Sohail Khan.
Investigation revealed that accused so far 82 bank account details which are involved in125 Cyber Crime fraud cases registered from all over the country. Further 9 out of 125 cases registered in Telangana State were detected. In these 82 Mule accounts fraud amount approximately Five Crores Rupees was credited and the same was withdrawn by cyber fraudsters.
According to the Hyderabad police prime accused Arif Saifi was operating from Saudi. “In the month of February 2023, in Sharjah he came into contact with two persons named Zaid from Uttar Pradesh and Sandeep Singh from Punjab who said that they were engaged in Crypto currency business and they need bank accounts to do their business transactions and offered to pay Rs. 15,000/- for each account,” said Hyderabd police in an officials statement.
Mule are the ones who takes fall on behalf of cyber criminals
Lured by the quick money Arif Safi along with one Fathima Begum from Chaderghat, Hyderabad (presently staying in Sharjah) started opening bank accounts and procuring SIM cards by offering to pay Rs.10,000 for each account in Hyderabad city through the gang members Mohd. Abdul Naveed, Sohail Khan, Mohd. Dade Khan and Sohail Khan. These Sim cards and bank account credentials were sent to Dubai to the cyber fraudsters.
Cyber Fraudsters in these cases cheated innocent people to perform the online tasks by investing a lesser amount making them believe that initially they will send profits. After gaining the confidence of the victims, they cheated the innocent people to invest larger amounts.
Hyderabad police appealed to the public not to believe the fraudulent online investments which lure them in the guise of high returns by investing little amounts by sitting at home and also request the public not open the bank accounts for others and share any credentials to the others.
