By Biswanath Dash
BHUBANESWAR: Economic Offences Wing, Bhubaneswar arrested accused persons namely, Mahmud Khan and Munfed Khan with the help of Rajsthan police on 09.11.2022 from Ramgarh PS limit, Alwar in EOW PS Case No.19 dated 15.10.2022 u/s 419/420/467/468/471/120-B IPC R/w Sec.66 (C)/66 (D) of IT Act, 2000. The arrested accused persons were produced before ACJM, Ramgarh,Alwar, Rajsthan and brought on 05 days transit remand to Bhubaneswar for their productionbefore SDJM, Bhubaneswar.
The group, as revealed so far, has opened near about 2000 mule accounts in different part of country mainly in Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar and Assam. Further EOW also arrested one local accused namely Anil Khiller from Baisinga, Mayurbhanj who used to supply the SIM to the scamsters in Rajasthan. He has procured and sent at least 1200 SIMs to these scamsters.
This case was registered on the allegation of opening mule accounts with Indian Post payment Bank (IPPB) in the name of different innocent/rustic persons especially in Nabarangpur by giving the impression that the account holders would get monetary benefits under different Govt. schemes through these accounts but these accounts were used for illegal money transactions (In various Cyber Crimes) beyond the knowledge of the actual account holders. Investigation revealed that some local youths namely Subir Benya, Upendra Samarth,
Rajendra Harijan, Dhansingh Harijan and Sansai Santa (Gramin Dak Sevak) of Nabarangpur in criminal conspiracy with some scamsters of Rajsthan have created hundreds of mule accounts with Indian Post Payment Bank (IPPB) by using the Adhaar, PAN, photographs of the innocent villagers, but these accounts were being latched with different SIM numbers so provided by the fraudsters operating from Rajasthan. As a result, any transaction carried out through these accounts was being intimated to the fraudsters, who were managing the phones with given SIM numbers.
During investigation, these five local accused were earlier arrested in the case. They disclosed that they were opening the mule accounts in the locality for the fraudsters ofRajsthan who were paying them Rs.2,000/- per account. Basing on the clue obtained from the arrested persons and by analysing different incriminating telephone numbers and bank account statements, EOW arrested Mahmud Khan and Munfed Khan from Alwar, Rajsthan. Initial investigation suggests that Mahmud Khan received at least Rs.62 Lakh remitted through the mule accounts fraudulently opened with IPPB, Nabarangpur.
Apart from this (IPPB account) angle, the fraudsters were illegally procuring SIMs from differentsources/ states to be used in this scam.
Modus Opernadi of the Scam
1. Scamster of Alwar, Rajsthan purchased fake SIM Nos @ Rs.300/- per SIM from ODISHA and West Bengal state for misusing in various cyber Crimes.
2. 10 to 15 groups manages the fake SIM business in Alwar District. After receiving the fake SIMs from ODISHA and West Bengal, they sold out the same in Rajasthan and U.P States @ 1000/- per SIM for fraud purposes only (OLX FRAUD, JOB FRAUD, PHISING, NUDE VIDEO CALL FRAUD, NIGERIAN FRAUD, ELECTRIC BILL FRAUD, LOTTERY FRAUD and other frauds in which fraudster contacted the victims and also fraudster opened different wallets for transaction of fraud money.
3. Scamsters opened Facebook Page with linking of their WhatsApp by paying the advertising money to Facebook (META). The facebook page was pretended to be for the selling/ purchasing of old antique coin and notes.
4. After activation of Facebook Page , when some people posted their mobile phone number in the Facebook comment box for selling of their old coin and old rupee. Accused persons contacted them on their given Cellphone number.
5. After befriending these persons of Odisha, West Bengal and Assam and other states (especially in interior area) , the accused persons convinced them to open fake Bank Accounts in Indian Postal Payment Banks only in the name of illiterate people of their area for business purpose and they will pay Rs.2000/- per one IPB account . For linking of the IPB account, the accused persons provided the fake SIMs, which they purchased earlier from Odisha, Assam, West Bengal and other States for receiving OTP purpose.
6. After that scamsters opened different wallets like ( GOOGLE PAY, PHONEPE, PAYTM, andothers ) on the IPB bank account linked SIM Nos and sold out the same SIM No / IPB ACCOUNT NO in Rajsthan , U.P ( West ), UP ( EAST), Haryana @ Rs.6000/- per one fake IPBaccount for misusing in different fraud related works i.e ( ( OLX FRAUD, JOB FRAUD,PHISING, NUDE VIDEO CALL FRAUD, NIGERIAN FRAUD , ELECTRIC BILL FRAUD , LOTTERYFRAUD and other frauds in which fraudster contacted the victims over mobile phone andalso fraudster opened different wallets for transaction of fraud money.
7. It is suspected that more than 1000 persons operate from Alwar and Bharatpur districts of Rajsthan and tri-junction area of Rajasthan, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh (mainly Mewat region, Bhiwandi, Tijara, Kishangadh, Ramgadh, Laxmangadh, Nagar, Govindgadh etc.Investigation of the case is continuing.Toll free No.18003457103
