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I4C issues alert against illegal payment gateways

Oct 29, 2024 08:02 AM IST

The I4C advised against selling or renting their bank accounts, company registration certificates, and Udhyam Aadhaar Registration certificate to anyone.

New Delhi The home ministry’s Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) on Monday issued an alert against illegal payment gateways such as RTX Pay, Peace Pay, Pocco Pay, and RPPay that offer “money laundering as a service” to transnational organised cyber criminals. These payment gateways use mule bank accounts to receive money from victims of cyber scams, and then route it to criminal syndicates, often through a multi-layered network of bank accounts.

The I4C advised against selling or renting their bank accounts, company registration certificates, and Udhyam Aadhaar Registration certificate to anyone. (Shutterstock)
The I4C advised against selling or renting their bank accounts, company registration certificates, and Udhyam Aadhaar Registration certificate to anyone. (Shutterstock)

The I4C advised against selling or renting their bank accounts, company registration certificates, and Udhyam Aadhaar Registration certificate to anyone. “Illicit funds deposited in such bank accounts can lead to legal consequences, including arrest. Banks may deploy checks to identify misuse of bank accounts that are used for setting up Illegal Payment Gateways,” I4C’s official statement said.

To set up such networks, the perpetrators first scour for current and saving accounts on social media, usually on Telegram and Facebook.

These mule accounts are then controlled by foreign nationals from overseas, and are used to create an illegal payment gateway. This gateway link is used by criminal syndicates to accept deposits on fake investment sites, fake stock trading platforms, offshore betting and gambling websites, etc.

As soon as the victims deposit money in these accounts, the money is immediately transferred (“layered”) to another account. “Bulk Payout facility provided by banks are misused for the same,” the I4C said.

HT saw two such Telegram channels for RTX Pay, one each for India and Vietnam. Details for the Indian channel were given in Mandarin and English. An image shared repeatedly on the Indian channel showed a plane with RTXPay written on it transferring money via UPI, Paytm, and Bitcoin. It advertised real time payments, and collections ranging from 500 to 1 lakh on behalf of a third party (presumably from victims), and payments on behalf of a third party ranging from 500 to 2 lakh (presumably to the syndicate).

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