Varanasi: The cyber crime police arrested five members of an interstate cyber fraud racket that allegedly lured economically weak people into opening bank accounts in their names and used them as mule accounts for cyber criminals.DCP (Crime) Neetu Kadian said on Wednesday that the accused were identified as Adarsh Chaube of Mirzapur, Ashish Yadav of Azamgarh, Sujal Singh of Muzaffarnagar, Piyush Singh of Mau and Yuvraj Verma of Varanasi.According to police, the gang targeted poor and financially vulnerable people by offering them money to open bank accounts. Once the accounts were opened, the accused allegedly took possession of the ATM cards, passbooks, cheque books, internet banking credentials and SIM cards linked to the accounts, enabling them to gain complete control.Kadian said the mule accounts were then provided to domestic and foreign cyber criminals. The gang allegedly installed transaction APK files received from foreign associates on devices linked to the registered mobile numbers, giving remote access to the accounts. Proceeds of cyber fraud were routed through these accounts and transferred through multiple layers to conceal the money trail.During interrogation, the accused allegedly admitted that they earned commissions ranging from 8% to 15% of the defrauded amount. Police said they had purchased a Mahindra Thar and a Hyundai i20 using the proceeds of crime and were also paying the EMIs from the illegal earnings.Police recovered 15 Android mobile phones, three iPhones, 43 ATM cards, passbooks, cheque books, 12 SIM cards, a laptop, a diary, Rs12,060 in cash, and the two vehicles from the accused.A case has been registered against them under relevant provisions of BNS and the Information Technology Act.
