Maharashtra Police have made a major breakthrough in the biggest scam in the history of digital arrests, arresting seven individuals who are involved in a 58-crore fraud, as the officials verified on Friday. According to Maharashtra Cyber, the nodal state agency to investigate cyber crimes, it was found that the people who committed the crime had used over 6,500 mule bank accounts with 13 layers of transactions to launder the stolen money. Most of these accounts were being opened using the name of shell companies so that they could not be detected.
The case was uncovered when a 72-year-old businessman from Mumbai went to Maharashtra Cyber with a complaint. The victim stated that he was digitally detained and pressured into sending money to him over a series of weeks. Digital arrest is a new criminal technique used in cybercrime as scammers fake police officers, enforcement agencies, or the government. They threaten victims, imitate a court procedure, and use video and audio calls to bully the victims into paying huge amounts of money by threatening them with legal prosecution.
The fraudsters, in this case, held artificial court sessions and faked police interrogations via video calls. In 40 days, they were able to steal ₹58.13 crore of money of the businessman, leaving him completely dry of his life savings.
The seven suspects yet to be arrested include, among them, Sheikh Shahid Abdul Salam, Jafar Akbar Sayyed, Abdul Nasir Abdul Karim Khulli, Arjun Fojiram Kadwasara, Jetharam Rahinga Kadwasara, Imran Ismail Sheikh and Mohammed Naved Sheikh. Officials said these people opened mule accounts under their names, were of the first rank in laundering with accounts they opened to receive illegal funds, or were assisting in sourcing and controlling accounts on behalf of the syndicate.
Approximately ₹3.5 crore has been frozen by investigators till today, and efforts are underway to establish the masterminds of the cross-border financial network.
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