The Mangaluru City Police arrested two individuals for allegedly collecting bank accounts from the public and using them in cyber fraud operations.
The accused were identified as Mohammed Aneesh (30), a resident of Kasaba Bengre, Kuloor Post, and Saleeth Ahmed M (32), from Surathkal in Mangaluru.
According to the cyber command unit, the case came to light after a complaint was filed by Mohammed Sinan at the Mangaluru City Cyber Crime Police Station on Wednesday. The complainant alleged that the accused had taken his bank account details under the pretext of using it for a trading business. However, the account was later used for cyber fraud activities.
Based on the complaint, police registered a case under Sections 66(C) and 66(D) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 along with Sections 308(5), 318(4), 319(2), and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
During interrogation, the accused allegedly revealed that they were involved in cryptocurrency transactions involving Tether (USDT). They reportedly purchased USDT from individuals in India at lower prices and sold it at higher prices to scammers based in China.
Police said the foreign scammers transferred money obtained through cyber fraud committed against Indian victims into bank accounts provided by the accused. To enable these transactions, the suspects allegedly collected bank accounts from members of the public in Mangaluru.
During the operation, authorities seized four mobile phones, 18 debit cards, 17 bank passbooks, six cheque books, around 1,479.31 USDT in cryptocurrency, and a car.
Investigators found that the accused were fully aware that the accounts were being used for cyber fraud. Whenever complaints were filed and bank accounts were frozen, they reportedly arranged new bank accounts to continue the illegal activities.
Further questioning revealed that the accused had collected details of more than 70 bank accounts from people in Mangaluru city. Out of these, 37 accounts have already been flagged on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal with more than 88 complaints registered from different parts of the country.
Police said further investigation into the case is ongoing to identify other individuals involved in the cyber fraud network.
