Gujarat Police trace over Rs 1,071 crore linked to 1,090 cybercrime cases

Gandhinagar, Aug 17 (IANS) The Gujarat Police Cyber Centre of Excellence on Monday arrested a 25-year-old man from Assam who allegedly acted as the main financial handler for an international cybercrime network involved in digital arrest scams, tracing transactions worth Rs 10,71,55,66,034 linked to 1,090 cybercrime cases across India.

The accused, identified as Rafiqool Alam, a resident of Assam’s Barpeta district, was arrested after a Gujarat police team conducted technical analysis and a three-day reconnaissance operation in disguise before raiding his residence in Barpeta.

Police said they also seized technical gadgets from him. The investigation began after the Cyber Centre identified a senior citizen who was allegedly being subjected to a live digital arrest.

During counselling and questioning, the victim told officials that fraudsters had digitally arrested him using forged letters purportedly issued by the Maharashtra Police and the Supreme Court.

A technical examination of the bank accounts linked to the victim helped investigators identify about 10 other people who were allegedly undergoing digital arrest at the same time at different locations in India.

“Teams visited their homes and prevented them from transferring money to the fraudsters,” police said.

The investigation later identified the alleged main financial handler of the network through human intelligence and technical analysis.

According to the police, Alam allegedly handled money obtained through digital arrest and other cyber frauds by moving it through multiple bank accounts before converting it into cryptocurrency and sending it to members of a Chinese criminal network.

Investigators said the accused also used split transfers to move large sums in smaller amounts to avoid detection by financial surveillance agencies.

In one instance, transactions were split across 1,754 bank accounts in India within an hour, police said. Police said they exchanged direct financial and operational information with Chinese criminals through WhatsApp and Telegram.

This allegedly included scanners, user IDs, passwords, cryptocurrency wallet details, the modus operandi of crimes and other instructions.

The accused was also allegedly involved in operating a mule account network. “A total of 23 cryptocurrency wallets were recovered from his mobile phone, with transactions worth Rs 16 crore traced through them,” police said.

Investigators also found that the accused allegedly used the Chip Seller app for the illegal purchase and sale of cryptocurrency and used gaming accounts for financial transactions.

The police said the accused had played a role in 1,090 cybercrime cases across India involving a total amount of Rs 10,71,55,66,034.

The investigation also helped the Cyber Centre intervene in several digital arrest cases while they were still underway.

In Ahmedabad, a senior citizen was allegedly threatened with being implicated in a child pornography case by people posing as police officers and was asked to pay Rs 20 lakh.

Officials visited his home at night, counselled him and stopped the transfer of money.

In Surat, another senior citizen was allegedly threatened with being implicated in cases involving the Enforcement Directorate and terrorism and was initially asked to pay Rs 60 lakh. He eventually agreed to pay Rs 40 lakh and was preparing to sell his flat.

“When that did not materialise, he sold his shop for Rs 20 lakh and kept the money ready to hand over to the accused,” police said.

Officials intervened and prevented the transfer. In Jamnagar, a senior citizen was allegedly lured by people claiming to be brokers of Morgan Max Company with a promise of 50 to 60 per cent returns.

He had transferred Rs 9.50 lakh to different accounts and was preparing to send another Rs 10 lakh when officials intervened and stopped the transaction.

The Cyber Centre also counselled and assisted five other victims — one in Raipur, Chhattisgarh; one in Sundargarh, Odisha; one in Mumbai, Maharashtra; and two in Bhubaneswar, Odisha — preventing the alleged scams from progressing.

Police have registered three cases at the Cyber Crime Police Station in connection with the investigation.

The Cyber Centre of Excellence has appealed to people not to panic if callers claiming to be police, the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate, the Supreme Court, or other government or law-enforcement agencies threaten them with arrest in cases involving money laundering, drugs, courier-related offences, or other crimes and demand money.

–IANS

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