Chinese national among five held for operating mule bank accounts for cyber fraud in Noida
Noida police arrested 5 individuals, including a Chinese national, for cyber fraud involving mule bank accounts. SIM cards, phones seized. Ongoing investigation.
Five individuals, including a Chinese national, were arrested by the Noida police for their alleged involvement in facilitating mule bank accounts for perpetrating cyber frauds, senior police officers said on Wednesday.
Police said mule accounts are those that are used for depositing and transferring cash that was obtained illegally.
According to Manish Mishra, additional deputy commissioner of police, Noida, the police uncovered the racket following a tip-off about the bulk purchase of SIM cards in Noida.
“Five people, including a Chinese national, who were part of a group allegedly involved in duping innocent people through social media platforms have been arrested from different places under jurisdiction of Expressway police station on Wednesday. It has been found that the gang was involved in duping people by adding them in chat groups and luring them with the promise “hefty” returns on their investments,” said the ADCP.
“Twenty-one mobile phones, 223 SIM cards—including 94 new ones which were recently purchased in Noida -- two laptops, and seven Aadhaar cards have been seized from the possession of suspects. These sim cards were used to operate social media accounts to deceive unsuspecting individuals. We are investigating whether the social media accounts registered on these SIM cards are being operated in India or in foreign countries,” said the officer.
The arrested suspects have been identified as Tenzin Kalsang, who hails from Karnataka and resides in Sector 134, Noida; Krishna Murari, a resident of Lucknow; Tsering Dhondup, a resident of Kangra, Himachal Pradesh; Shobhit Tiwari, a resident of Lucknow; and Chinese national Zhu Junkai.
The ADCP said Zhu’s visa is valid till August this year.
“Zhu frequently travels to Dubai and India. He was the facilitator and hired the other members of the gang and gave them specific roles. He is also linked to some international perpetrators who are the masterminds of the fraud,” said Mishra, adding that Kalsang and Dhondup also worked as translators for the Chinese national.
He said the gang used mule bank accounts to deposit the money they defrauded from their victims.
“In the recent modus operandi, the fraudsters take over the operations of bank accounts of gullible people after offering them a payment for each transaction.These accounts are then used to deposit/withdraw defrauded money,” Shavya Goyal, assistant commissioner of police, Noida-3, said.
Deputy commissioner of police Vidya Sagar Mishra further revealed that a single transaction of ₹51 lakh from one such mule account recently alerted the police to the group’s activities, leading to their arrest.
“We are ascertaining the number of people who were duped by the gang. For each transaction conducted through mule accounts, the two suspects, Murari and Shobhit, were paid ₹3,000 for savings accounts and ₹20,000 for corporate accounts by Zhu. The police are continuing their investigation, tracking the entire money trail,” said the DCP.
“An FIR has been lodged at the Expressway police station under sections 420 (cheating), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 467, and 468 (related to forgery) of the Indian Penal Code. The suspects had been sent to judicial custody,” the officer said.