CBI carries out searches at 10 Delhi, nearby locations
NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) carried out searches at 10 locations in Delhi and nearby places in a case linked to a multi-crore cyber-enabled financial fraud involving Rs 117 crore on Wednesday.
The case was registered under Sections 403 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000, based on a complaint from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The complaint had alleged an organised crime of fraudulent activities by cybercriminals, suspected to be foreign entities, against Indian gullible citizens. Investigations revealed that these fraudsters were working from outside India and were using online platforms, such as a website and the applications WhatsApp and Telegram, to ensnare their victims. They lured them with promises of lucrative part-time jobs, task-based earnings, or high returns on investments. Once the money was wired by victims, it was swung through multiple “mule accounts” to cover its tracks.
According to sources, evidence shows that the syphoned funds were routed overseas for withdrawal, especially in locales such as Dubai and across the UAE. Some of those funds went into fintech wallet top-ups on platforms including “Pyypl” and were then disguised as point-of-sale transactions.
Between January 1, 2023, and October 17, 2023, 3,903 complaints filed on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal unveiled the involvement of over 3,295 Indian bank accounts in the transactions. Diverted funds were also spent to purchase cryptocurrencies, making their tracking much harder.
In the recent operation, the CBI has seized electronic devices, financial records, and other incriminating material from the premises of 10 people suspected to be associated with the scam. The seized evidence is expected to reveal the modus operandi of the syndicate and trace the complete flow of the illicit funds. The CBI made it obvious that such cyber-enabled crimes are seriously critical
