Nearly 500 bank accounts in Jharkhand under lens
RANCHI:The
Jharkhand Police is investigating the role of nearly 500 bank account holders from three districts — Dumka, Deoghar and Jamtara — in a case of illegal money deposits.
According to senior police officials, they are trying to ascertain if these accounts were used to park money siphoned off by cyber criminals from people across the country.
They will also be examining if the accounts were being offered for use voluntarily by the account holders.
In past four months, the police have arrested at least 217 cyber criminals from Dumka, Deoghar and Jamtara districts and recovered a huge cache of SIM cards, mobile phones and laptops, said deputy inspector general of police (Dumka region) Akhilesh Kumar Jha.
“The lead came when, around two months ago, we arrested a cyber-fraudster from Dumka who was in possession of a doze bank passbooks of different account holders,” Jha said. “Investigators are doing their homework. Once their complicity is ascertained, the account holders will also be caught and interrogated,” he added.
According to police officials, the accounts of those who had migrated from Jharkhand were targeted by these scamsters since transfers are a routine matter in such accounts.
The matter came into light when banks found high-value transactions in these accounts from e-wallets and informed the police. A bank official, who was not willing to be quoted, said
he lead came when, around two months ago, we arrested a cyberfraudster from Dumka who was in possession of a doze bank passbooks of different account holders... AKHILESH KUMAR JHA, Deputy inspector general of police, Dumka
they were cooperating with the police.
A police officer said once these migrants returned home, the fraudsters took away their ATM cards and passbooks.
“We are investigating whether they willingly gave them account details in exchange for commission or they were forced,” the officer said.
According to Dumka’s deputy superintendent of police (cyber) Sriram Samad, the fraudsters first dupe their targets through phishing and get money credited to their e-wallet accounts or e-commerce shopping accounts.
From the e-wallet accounts, the money is transferred to the borrowed bank accounts by using their IFSC, he said.
“This is a new trend. Fraudsters feel the need of bank accounts to transfer the money that they get in their e-wallet through phishing,” said Samad.
Prakhar Prasad, a cyber expert working in a multinational IT firm in Singapore, said different e-wallet platforms have different rules.
Some charge a nominal fee for transferring money to bank accounts while some provide this facility without any charge, he said.
Cyber criminals have spilled into the neighbouring districts of Jamtara of Dumka and Deoghar. The enormity of the network can be gauged from the fact that the three most backward and poor districts of Jharkhand have dedicated anti-cyber fraud cells.——