Gang of 5 rents, hires bank accounts for cyber frauds, held
Times of India | 29 October 2024
Kolkata: Barrackpore cyber crime police, Siliguri Police and CID arrested five persons who "hired" bank accounts of poor labourers and lent the accounts to cyber fraudsters. The accused, Riju Roy, Partha Mondal, Shubham Barik, Somnath Tarafdar and Sandeep Dey, were rounded up in a raid on a house near Eastern Bypass in Siliguri.
Police seized mobile phones, ATM cards and bank passbooks, which were used for the scam running into Rs 5.5 crore.
The gang's targets would be underprivileged and uneducated people, said police, adding that the gang members offered them Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 a month to hire their bank accounts, which were used for transactions of millions of rupees. This gang rented out bank accounts for various cyber frauds, but at present, the accounts were found to have been given out to fraudsters who conned people by offering them fake stock exchange investments, police said.
Kolkata Police's detective department said it was coming up with an SOP to "target" and "take decisive steps" against people who operated mule accounts for cyber frauds. "We have decided to hit them hard and hit them financially," said a joint commissioner at Lalbazar.