Three held for supplying ‘mule’ bank accounts to cyber crooks

Lucknow: Barabanki police on Tuesday arrested three youths from Pune for allegedly supplying bank accounts of unsuspecting villagers to cyber fraudsters.Pegging the case on the growing misuse of "mule accounts," police said the accused were selling bank accounts for as little as Rs 15,000 each to cyber criminals, who used them to route and conceal proceeds of online fraud across the country.The arrested accused have been identified as Vaibhav Singh, Alok Sharma and Abhishek Kumar, all aged between 19 and 20 years. Police said the trio targeted rural residents, luring them with promises of benefits under govt welfare schemes.The case came to light following a complaint by Chandradeep, a resident of Gokulpur Saini village, who alleged that the accused opened a bank account in his name on the pretext of facilitating govt benefits. They allegedly took possession of his passbook, ATM card and other documents, and later linked their own mobile numbers to operate the account."During investigation, we found that as many as 16 such bank accounts had been opened and misused to channel money obtained through cyber fraud," said superintendent of police Arpit Vijayvargiya. He added that these accounts were being used to transfer and layer illicit funds across multiple states.Police said once the accounts were activated, the accused handed over control to a Pune-based mastermind, receiving a commission of Rs 15,000 per account. Teams have been dispatched to Maharashtra to trace the kingpin.Investigations revealed that the accused were drawn into the racket through online gaming platforms. While playing Pokémon, they reportedly came into contact with cyber fraudsters after posting about a technical issue.
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