Nigerian gangs in bank frauds

Gangs comprising mainly Nigerians are helming cyber crimes. They are hiring unemployed youth to function as ‘money mules’. These money mules, wittingly or unwittingly, aid remotely located fraudsters by opening bank accounts and transferring money to scam operators for a fraction of the ill-gotten money as fee. The city has become a haven for cyber fraudsters.

In account take over, the opening of bank account is the key; instead of them coming and opening account (fearing police) and giving overseas account (fearing customers might notice), they have come up with a plan to open bank accounts with fake addresses. These gangs have agents in Mumbai and Delhi, who lure the unemployed saying, ‘open bank accounts and help in our business transactions, we will give you commission’. The lured unemployed are called ‘money mules’ and they are used to execute the grand scheme

Cyber crimes are constantly evolving, with changes in their dimensions, types and nature being the order of the day. ‘Account take over’ is an update in cyber crimes. This type of fraud, rampant in northern parts of India, is taking root in the city. Police investigations into a case resulted in the arrests of two men on Friday. The two, hailing from Uttar Pradesh, had arrived in the city and opened a whopping 32 bank accounts in various banks to aid in account take over. Upon interrogation by the Central Crime Station police personnel, shocking facts came to light.

The police have found that most of the cyber crimes in India are steered by Nigerians. In respect of account take over, the gangs led by Nigerians target mainly north Indian businessmen. Hackers on their payroll track the emails of targeted businessmen and closely monitor their correspondence. In particular, the hackers look forward to payment-related correspondence. The moment they identify one such email, they shoot a mail (from the hacked email account) saying, “due to some unavoidable circumstances, the account number is changed. Kindly make the payment to this account number” (which is their own account number). If the other party pays without checking with the businessman, the amount will be credited to the accounts of the hackers. This type of crime is called as account take over.

Nigerians operating from overseas locations are now specialising in taking such steps as would insulate them from being apprehended by the police. According to CCS Inspector, “in account take over, the opening of bank account is the key; instead of them coming and opening account (fearing police) and giving overseas account (fearing customers might notice), they have come up with a plan to open bank accounts with fake addresses. These gangs have agents in Mumbai and Delhi, who lure the unemployed saying, ‘open bank accounts and help in our business transactions, we will give you commission’. The lured unemployed are called ‘money mules’ and they are used to execute the grand scheme”.

Modus operandi

Before sending the money mules to various places, the agents, based mostly in Delhi and Mumbai and who are also their handlers, will the money mules fake driving licences that are obtained from other states as well as some sum of the promised money in advance. The mules are then sent to places with a mission to open “as many accounts as possible” for additional commission that is increased incrementally.

The arrested Manish Tiwari and Dharmendra Kumar used their driving licence as an Identity Card and took a house on rent. They signed a rental agreement and used that as document to get a landline phone connection.

Both Manish and Dharmendra waited for the first bill to land; and, after receiving the phone bill, they used all the three documents and opened 32 accounts with HDFC, ICICI, Axis, SBI and Yes banks. After opening the accounts, they sent their account details, credit and debit cards to their handlers in Delhi and Mumbai.

The Nigerian gangs used these accounts opened in the city for account take over. It is believed that Rs 90 lakh worth transactions took place through some of such accounts.The CCS police produced the arrested money mules in court on Saturday and sought permission from the court for further interrogation. The police are advising people to be wary of such cyber crimes.