Bengaluru police bust major online job fraud linked to Chinese racket: Report

Bengaluru police have made significant strides in dismantling a large online job fraud scheme with ties to China, arresting as many as ten individuals involved in a currency-to-crypto conversion racket. Police Commissioner B Dayananda announced the arrests, which include local residents from R T Nagar and surrounding areas, with the scam reportedly amounting to ₹6 crore, the Deccan Herald reported.
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The investigation began on July 3, triggered by a victim who lost ₹25.37 lakh after being lured into a fake job opportunity via WhatsApp and Telegram. Initially, the victim was asked to complete simple tasks like rating hotels for small payments. Once engaged, the fraudsters pressured the individual to invest in cryptocurrency, the report stated.
Cybercrime investigators revealed that the suspects obscured the money trail by funnelling the proceeds into various mule accounts. They withdrew cash from ATMs and converted it to cryptocurrency through peer-to-peer networks in Bengaluru, which was then sent to their Chinese bosses. The criminals received a 1.5 per cent commission for their efforts once transactions were confirmed, the publication added.
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Further investigation led to the arrests of seven suspects on September 13, where police seized multiple mobile devices, debit cards, bank passbooks, and cash. The three main suspects have been identified as Sayed Yahya, Mohammed Umar Faruk, and Mohammed Maheen, who had recently travelled to China to meet with the scam’s masterminds. Upon their return to Bengaluru, they were detained at the airport, the report said.
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In total, police have frozen ₹7.34 lakh from the scam’s proceeds and flagged multiple bank accounts linked to 122 cybercrime cases spanning across 21 states. Authorities are continuing to investigate the network, and searching for additional accomplices involved in converting Indian currency to cryptocurrency.