Inter-State Cyber Fraud Racket Busted; 2 Arrested By Odisha EOW From Rajasthan

Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha police has busted an inter-state cyber fraud racket by arresting two fraudsters from Rajasthan for allegedly duping people through OLX, fake jobs and obscene videos.

The accused, identified as Mahmud Khan and Munfed Khan, were arrested from Ramgarh in Alwar of Rajasthan and brought to Bhubaneswar on transit remand for interrogation, the EOW said.

The group has opened around 2000 mule accounts in different parts of the country, mainly in Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar and Assam.

The EOW has also arrested another person, Anil Khiller from Baisinga in Mayurbhanj, who used to supply the SIM to the scamsters in Rajasthan. He has procured and sent at least 1200 SIMs to these fraudsters.

The case was registered on the allegation that mule accounts have been opened with Indian Post Payment Bank (IPPB) in the name of different people, especially in Nabarangpur, by giving an impression that account holders would get monetary benefits under various government schemes. However, the accounts were used for illegal money transactions in various cyber-crimes beyond the knowledge of the actual account holders.

Investigation showed some local youths in criminal conspiracy with scamsters of Rajsthan had created hundreds of mule accounts with IPPB by using the Adhaar, PAN, photographs of innocent villagers, but these accounts were being latched with 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.

Five local accused were earlier arrested in the case. They disclosed that they were opening the mule accounts in the locality for the fraudsters of Rajsthan who were paying them Rs.2,000/- per account.

Based on the clue obtained from them and by analysing different telephone numbers and bank account statements, EOW arrested Mahmud Khan and Munfed Khan from Alwar. 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 different sources/states to be used in this scam. Further investigation is underway.