The Coimbatore city cybercrime police have made significant arrests, including a woman assistant manager from a private bank, for aiding cyber fraudsters in a large-scale scam. The arrested individuals have been identified as Nithya (32), an assistant manager at a bank in Hosur, M. Sivakumar (27), a civil engineer from Bengaluru, and M. Kumaresan (29) from Hosur.
Sivakumar befriended cyber fraudsters over the phone and approached Kumaresan with an offer: he would earn substantial profits if he opened current accounts in his name. Believing Sivakumar’s claims, Kumaresan opened ten current accounts at various banks and handed the account details to Sivakumar, who then passed them on to Nithya.
The scam began in January when Joju Mathew, a 51-year-old freelance stock trader from Ganapathy in Coimbatore, was added to a WhatsApp group called “No 999-PIN-Wealth Think Tank.” The group was managed by Mansi Jaiswal, who posed as a former Franklin Templeton employee with Wall Street experience. Mansi, along with other members, convinced Mathew to invest through a company named PIN FUND, which turned out to be a fake investment platform.
Trusting the offer, Mathew downloaded a mobile application provided by the fraudsters and transferred Rs 50 lakh in multiple transactions. However, when he tried to withdraw his money, he realized it was a scam. Following his complaint, the cybercrime police launched an investigation.
The police discovered that Rs 10 lakh had been transferred to Kumaresan’s bank accounts by Mathew. Further investigation revealed that Kumaresan had opened ten current accounts as per Sivakumar’s instructions and received Rs 1 lakh as payment for doing so. Sivakumar passed the account details to Nithya, who in turn handed them over to the cyber fraudsters. Using these accounts, the fraudsters conducted transactions totaling over Rs 1 crore.
The trio was arrested on Wednesday evening and remanded in judicial custody on Thursday. Authorities are continuing their investigation into the broader network of cyber fraudsters involved in the scam.
