Cyber fraud racket involving bank staff busted in Rajasthan's Alwar; six held

Jaipur, Sep 28 (PTI) Six people including employees of a private bank have been arrested for allegedly running a cyber fraud racket in Rajasthan's Alwar, police said on Sunday.

Poice have seized 26 ATM cards, 33 mobile phones, 34 SIM cards, Rs 2.5 lakh in cash, along with cheque books, passbooks and impounded two cars during the operation.

The racket was selling hundreds of current and corporate accounts, known as "mule accounts," to cybercriminals for hefty commissions, facilitating frauds worth more than Rs 100 crore, police added.

Superintendent of Police (Alwar) Sudheer Choudhary said with the latest arrests, the total number of people held in the case has risen to 16.

Investigations revealed that more than Rs 500 crore of scam funds were routed through these mule accounts, with more than 4,000 complaints registered against them on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP).

Those arrested include mastermind Varun Patwa (40), a native of Udaipur and currently residing in Gurugram and Satish Kumar Jat (35) of Hisar, Haryana.

The four Axis Bank employees -- Sahil Agarwal (33), Gulshan Punjabi (33), Asu Sharma (23) and Anchal Jat (24) -- were allegedly responsible for opening fake current accounts using forged documents and then passing them on to middlemen, who sold them to cyber fraudsters via WhatsApp and Telegram groups.

The accused gave fraudsters direct access to internet banking by linking accounts with new phone numbers, installing APK files and sharing one time passwords (OTPs).

These accounts were then used to launder proceeds from online betting, gaming frauds and crypto transactions, police said. PTI AG OZ OZ