Chennai student uses fake email to ‘unfreeze’ bank accounts

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat State Cyber Crime Cell of the CID busted a cyber fraud racket targeting "frozen" bank accounts. The team tracked and arrested a 22-year-old student, Premraj Rajapandi, from the Ramapuram area in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, for allegedly creating a fake email ID that mimicked the State Cyber Crime Cell helpline and then used it to trick banks to "unfreeze accounts and later divert funds from these accounts", stated an official press release.Rajapandi allegedly preyed on victims whose bank accounts were frozen due to suspicion of involvement in cybercrime. These individuals were desperate to regain access to their funds, states the CID press release.According to a statement by the Cyber Crime Cell of CID (crime), the investigation began after complaints surfaced about a fraudulent email ID (helpline-cyber-cid@gujarat-g-o-v.in), designed to mimic the official govt email address (helpline-cyber-cid@gujarat.gov.in).This imposter email was allegedly used to send false notices to banks, requesting the unfreezing of specific accounts — in this case, an account with Axis Bank and another a Federal Bank account.CID officials said that Rajapandi created the fake email ID to impersonate an official from the State Cyber Crime Cell and manipulate banks into unfreezing targeted accounts. "This would potentially allow him to divert funds or access them illegally," states the press release.Officials of CID's Cyber Crime Cell, led by police inspector B M Chaudhary, along with constables Sunil Choudhary, Vijay Desai, technical experts Rakesh Solanki and Pooja Sitapar, tracked the email trail.They traced the fake email ID back to the domain registrar and obtained details associated with it, including a mobile number.Further analysis led them to a suspect mobile number which, through open-source intelligence gathering, revealed the alias "Premraj Unfreeze USDT". Following this digital footprint, the team gathered additional information for verification, culminating in the arrest of Rajapandi at his residence in Chennai on Oct 26.
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