Police investigations have shown that overseas cybercrime syndicates are using messaging apps and social media sites to find collaborators in India.
Investigators discovered that some of the arrested suspects in at least two recent cases investigated by the Bengaluru City police and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) were recruited by handlers based in southeast Asian nations using groups and pages on social media platforms and messenger apps that pretended to be legitimate businesses, two senior officers told the media.
All of this was carried out without first informing the possible collaborators that they were joining a transactional cybercrime ring.
“The cybercriminals post business opportunities through these groups and social media ads,” explained a senior CID officer. “They use terms like ‘business partner’, ‘serious candidates only’ and ‘long-term partnership’ to make it look like they were genuine businessmen.”
The kingpin or handler entrusts their possible accomplices with running the network of mule accounts, which are used to launder money, “renting” people’s bank accounts in remote locations, and contacting people to purchase the complete bank account kit, which includes the passbook, debit card, and other items, after the online contact is established.
The con artists will utilize these bank accounts to move money in many ways and hide their tracks. Along with contacting peer-to-peer cryptocurrency sellers, the local collaborators are also tasked with handing them the cash profits of the crime and receiving the cryptocurrency, which will then be delivered to the overseas handlers using wallets that make it very difficult to track them down.
During interrogation, a key suspect in a September 2024 case involving the arrest of ten individuals involved in an online job fraud by North Cyber Economic and Narcotics (CEN) crime police claimed that he had met the alleged kingpin through one of the messenger apps, who had enticed him into the scam in exchange for a commission of Rs 10,000 for every 1 crore of transactions. He then enlisted more people before their arrest.
“They are lured with commission and goodies like iPhones and electronics,” the second senior police officer said.
The officer cited a 2024 CID chargesheet on a cybercrime case in which the overseas handler had forced his Karnataka-based associates to establish a shell corporation in their names.
“The kingpin, who was found to be from China, used his three local accomplices to register a company in India. Everything was in the name of the local accomplices, including company registration and rental agreement. The local accomplices continued operating the company and recruiting employees, all while being part of cybercrimes. However, when the arrests happened and charges were being framed, there was no single evidence to link the suspect from China, who floated the company in the first place,” the officer said.
Investigators also discovered that, in a number of cases, locals who were unaware of the crime created the current accounts used to collect the profits of crimes at the handlers’ request after establishing contact on chat apps.
According to the top authorities, social media companies frequently disregarded the demands made by law enforcement.
“When the requests involve a foreign national suspect, no response is given,” one of the officers quoted above said. “Even when nodal officers write to social media intermediaries to remove the suspicious groups or pages, it is seldom heeded. By the time the nodal officers get through the red tape, the cybercriminals themselves set up other groups and pages. We need stricter laws and better Centre-State coordination.”
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