Three men in their twenties were arrested by the Mumbai Police Crime Branch for allegedly converting money made by cyber criminals into crypto currency and sending it to their handlers in China.
According to police, the fraudsters would pose as Fedex employees and call people, claiming that narcotics were found in a parcel addressed to them. They would then ask them to pay a certain amount to evade arrest. They would then transfer the amount to their account and convert it into crypto currency via a Dubai-based person before sending it to their handlers based in China.
DCP (crime) Datta Nalawade said the arrested are Shubham Padavi (26), a Borivali resident, Fayan Shaikh (22), a Malad resident, and Adnan Mirza (21), a Malwani resident.
Explaining that two teams were involved in carrying out the cyber crimes, Nalawade said, “One is focused on threatening or luring people into making payments and the second team gets the money converted into crypto currency and sends it to the main accused in China.”
The officer said that in this case, Padavi provided his bank account to fraudsters in exchange for a commission. Shaikh would then contact a Dubai-based person who would convert the money into crypto currency and send it to Mirza who would eventually sent this money to China. “At each stage, the three accused would take a commission,” an officer said.
The officer added that the three men got in touch with China-based handlers when they came across their posts on social media platforms and expressed interest in doing their work in exchange for a commission.
The officer said that while the first two accused were arrested from Mumbai, the third accused was arrested from Rajasthan. Police have found nearly 40 cases of cyber fraud where the accounts of the accused were used to launder money.
In the case in which they have been arrested, the accused had defrauded the victim of Rs 65.10 lakh by claiming to be calling from Fedex. Police team led by senior inspector Suvarna Shinde and inspector Kiran Aher managed to freeze Rs 13.50 lakh across bank accounts while the rest of the money was already laundered.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 11-07-2024 at 22:23 IST
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