Tamil Nadu: 3 involved in mule account ops held

MADURAI: Madurai district police on Tuesday (September 8) arrested three persons allegedly involved in a mule account operation to help cyber criminals convert money obtained through online fraud into US dollars and send it to cyber scammers.

The police seized 26 bank passbooks, 18 mobile phones, 77 ATM cards, 18 cheque books and 60 SIM cards from them.

According to the police, the main accused, J Faraskhan (23) of Ramanathapuram, a Visual Communication graduate, acted as a second-level agent who converted the money into US dollars before it was sent abroad as part of an “ID running” operation.

Madurai Superintendent of Police N Devanathan said, “This online fraud operates in multiple layers involving many people, but criminals involved in different layers have bare-minimum communication.”

The modus operandi is as follows: Cyber criminals who cheat people through various online frauds immediately transfer the money to different bank accounts through agents.

These agents immediately withdraw the money from these accounts, convert it into dollars through another network and send it back to the cyber scammers, Devanathan said.

The syndicate operates in such a way that, before victims can seek police help, the money is transferred through various bank accounts, making the investigation difficult, he added.

In this case, Faraskhan used his bank account and the bank accounts of several other persons to receive the money with the intention of earning money through illegal means.

“For every Rs 1 lakh he received from cyber criminals in various bank accounts, converted into US dollars and sent to cyber scammers, he received a commission of Rs 6,300,” said an investigating officer.

Through this illegal activity, he had received commissions amounting to around Rs 10 lakh during the past year, the officer added.

The two other accused, F Hafeeb Mohammed (21) of Pudukottai and M Mohamed Mubarrak (23) of Ramanathapuram, allegedly helped him carry out the operation.

“The trio hired a room on the outskirts of Madurai to carry out the operation,” said the officer.

“Many innocent people were cheated in this crime. These agents approach people in rural areas and open bank accounts in their names. They pay them between Rs. 5,000 and Rs. 10,000 and collect their bank passbooks, which they use to receive money from cyber criminals,” the SP said.

Moreover, the agents also collect mobile SIM cards from another group and use them while opening the bank accounts.

They carry out all the online transactions using these numbers, while the original account holders remain unaware of the transactions, he added.

In some cases, people knowingly give their bank accounts to agents for a commission, the officer said, adding that the agents who help convert the money into dollars also earn substantial commissions.

The police have appealed to members of the public to remain vigilant against cyber fraud.