Bhubaneswar: To create awareness among the people on various modus operandi adopted by Cyber Criminals so that they can avoid getting trapped to such frauds, the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) has listed out the various patterns noticed by it during investigations.
1. Mostly these scams are run from China/Hongkong and Dubai with some of their support system based in India.
2. The scammers create website/ Apps to run their schemes and also promote them through social media sites.
3. The scammers generally use Whatsapp and telegram channels to communicate with their associates and victims.
4. They use fake SIMs (SIM in someone else’s name) and mule bank accounts wherever required to ensure anonymity.
5. They control and do business through numerous mule bank accounts (traded on dark market in some Whatsapp groups and Telegram channels).
6. While the victims pay their money through UPIs/ digital wallets, the money through some Payment gateway lands at mule bank accounts controlled by scammers. This money is then routed through multiple layers of other mule bank accounts to fool/ puzzle the police/law enforcement agencies.
7. In some schemes, victims are initially paid some amounts to (to lure/ trap) victims. This money is either paid by the mule bank accounts or from other victim’s accounts.
8. It was observed that these mule bank accounts remain active only for few days and after that either it is closed or volume of transactions abruptly becomes negligible.
9. After being channelized through multiple mule bank accounts, the bulk money lands at current accounts of some shell companies or proprietorship firms. Director of these companies are hired or mule directors. These companies/ proprietorships are also controlled by scammers or their agents.
10. In the end, crypto traders in India are offered lucrative rate to convert the bulk amount into Crypto currency. Finally money in the shape of crypto is transferred out of India in a highly organized and complex manner and thereby putting serious limitation to law enforcement agencies to recover/ freeze the amount.
11. In few cases it has been noticed that some amount is withdrawn through ATM in Dubai too.
12. Initial analysis shows that thousands of Crores of rupee might have been siphoned out of India by these foreign Cyber criminals.
The EOW has said that Cyber Criminals target lower middle/middle class people who are interested in making quick money. Lakhs of people have been victimized across India. However as the individual losses are not very big, victims rarely approach police/ law enforcement agencies. Unfortunately, In case of Chinese Loan App Scams more than 100 people committed suicide in India (No one in Odisha).
The EOW has advised all to remain alert and not to fall in the traps of these Cyber Thugs.
In case, they fall in the trap, they should immediately inform to Police/ 112/ 1930 (Cyber-crime helpline). They should never panic because these cyber thugs can’t do anything if you remain strong and don’t surrender to their illegal demands, the EOW added.
The EOW has said that it has investigated various Cyber-Financial frauds including Online Ponzi schemes, Illegal Chinese Loan Apps, Crypto-related frauds, Youtube/Hotels etc. liking/rating Scams, Work from home scams, Courier scams, Money earning Apps, online Betting etc.
The EOW has claimed to have issued many advisories to people so that they can avoid getting trapped to such frauds.
It has said that it has informed/alerted various Govt agencies (Reserve Bank of India, Financial Intelligence unit, Enforcement Directorate, Central Economic Intelligence bureau, Directorate of Telecommunication, Registrar of Companies etc.).
So that coordinated efforts can be taken against Cyber Criminals as most of which are being run from abroad.
