9 held for cyber crime in Hyderabad via mule accounts

Hyderabad: Nine persons have been arrested by the Cyberabad police for their operating and providing mule accounts for cyber crime leading to several fraudulent financial transactions. The accused were found to be part of an organized network that laundered money made illegally through multiple current accounts.

The arrests were made by the Medchal special operations team of the Cyberabad police. The fraudulent mule accounts used for cyber crime in Hyderabad were controlled through unauthorized mobile applications and SIM swaps, which are then used to route large sums of money received through online fraud, scams, and other cybercrimes.

The accused who have been arrested: Sumit Rathore, Manvendra Singh Rathore, Mohammed Nadeem Ur Rehman, Md Nayeem Ur Rahaman, Md Shaffi, S. Bharath, Telugu Mahesh, Abdul Khaled, and Jelpti Mahesh. Of them Sumit and Manvendra are from Rajasthan while the others are from Telangana.

According to the police, the group was operating under the instructions of an international cyber handler using the Telegram @Jack. “They were lodging account holders in hotels near DLF, Gachibowli, Hyderabad, collecting their bank documents, and installing a malicious APK file (which functions only on Samsung mobile phones) to remotely operate the accounts,” said the Cyberabad police in a press release.

The accused booked different hotels for a week and changed their locations frequently to avoid detection. The agents facilitating these operations were arriving from Rajasthan. After their arrests, the police seized 16 mobile phones, one laptop, two cars and Rs. 82,500 in cash.

The Cyberabad police is currently trying to trace other beneficiaries, digital footprints, and the main handler @Jack for cheating the public through cyber crime in Hyderabad. The public has been cautioned and asked to contact the Cyber Crime police station or dial 1930 if anyone finds any any suspicious emails, calls claiming to be from support teams of banks or e- commerce platforms, do not respond.