Man with China links held for Rs 1,071 crore cyber fraud across 1,090 cases
The Gujarat CID has arrested a man from Assam allegedly involved in a staggering 1,090 cybercrimes, including 'digital arrest' cases, amounting to Rs 1,071.5 crore across the country and having links with China-based criminals, police said.
The investigation showed that the accused, Rafiqul Alam (25), was the "mastermind" behind transferring tainted money into 1,758 bank accounts across the country and converting funds into cryptocurrencies, which he sent to China, the police said on Monday.
He was connected to criminals based in China through WhatsApp and Telegram, two of the biggest and popular global messaging apps, they said.
The Crime Investigation Department's (CID) cyber cell arrested the accused in Barpeta, Assam.
An investigation into a separate case of a senior citizen being 'digitally arrested' based on fake letters from the Maharashtra police and Supreme Court also led to the prevention of 10 such cases across different states through counselling, the Gandhinagar-based Cyber Centre of Excellence (CCE) of the CID said.
The accused was also the "mastermind" of an international gang, said the CCE.
"Based on technical analysis and the victims' statement, a team from CCE visited Barpeta city and conducted a three-day recce of the house of the main money launderer in disguise and arrested him along with his technical gadgets," it said.
The accused used to transfer the money received through digital arrest and other cyber frauds to different bank accounts. He also converted the tainted money into cryptocurrencies and sent it to China, said police.
"The money received by the accused through digital arrest or cyber frauds was split and transferred to 1,754 bank accounts across India within an hour by converting large amounts into small amounts to evade the attention of financial surveillance agencies," the CCE said.
The accused exchanged financial information (scanner, user ID, password, crypto wallet, modus operandi of the crime, etc.) directly with Chinese criminals through WhatsApp and Telegram, it said.
The cybercrime sleuths found a total of 23 crypto wallets in his mobile phones in which Rs 16 crore had been transacted, establishing a connection between cryptocurrency and a China-based gang. They also found illegal trading of cryptocurrency, which was done using the 'chip seller' app, it said.
"The accused has been involved in a total of 1,090 cyber crimes across the country amounting to Rs 1071.5 crore. His mobile phones also had gaming account transactions," said the Gujarat police unit.
Separately, technical analysis of the bank account of a senior citizen based in Ahmedabad helped prevent 'digital arrest' of 10 such victims after the CCE teams visited their houses, it said.
The senior citizen was threatened that he would be framed for child pornography if he did not pay Rs 20 lakh to cyber crooks. The victim was counselled by a CCE team.
Another senior citizen from Surat was threatened with Enforcement Directorate action by men posing as police who demanded Rs 60 lakh from him, according to the CCE.
The Surat resident agreed to give Rs 40 lakh to the criminals by selling his flat. However, when the deal to sell the flat did not materialise, he sold his shop for Rs 20 lakh to pay the scammers.
A total of 10 individuals -- five from Gujarat, three from Odisha and one each from Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra -- were counselled and prevented from falling prey to digital crimes, the CCE added.
