- Power Bank App– A country-wide fraud syndicate operated by Chinese nationals
- Two CAs are among the 11 accused arrested
- More than 500,000 confirmed victims identified who have been cheated of over Rs.150 Crores in 2 months.
- Rs.11 Crores of cheated money has been blocked in various bank accounts and payment gateways. Rs.97 lakh cash recovered from a Gurgaon-based CA who formed over 110 companies for Chinese fraudsters.
- Unsuspecting Indian citizens were being offered lucrative returns on an online multi-level marketing campaign and were being cheated
- Accused persons were installing malicious Apps in mobile phones of Indians in the garb of a Quick Money Earning App
- The malicious App – ‘Power Bank’ pushed by the Chinese cheats was trending at No.4 on Google Play Store.
- The Chinese fraudsters found to be operating multiple modules across the country. A Tibetan woman wanted in one such syndicate operating from B’luru, was apprehended at IGIA Airport in a coordinated operation of Delhi and Bengaluru Police.
New Delhi: The Cyber Crime Cell (CyPAD) of Delhi Police today busted a nationwide scam and arrested 11 persons including two chartered accountants.
30 mobile phones were recovered from one of the arrested accused Robin, whose disclosure revealed a startlingly well-planned conspiracy of cheating and fraud being organized by Chinese nationals through a labyrinth of shell companies, bank accounts and dummy mobile numbers.
Robin, who was contacted by the Chinese through Telegram, initially opened a bank account for these fraudsters but later started acting as an operative whose primary task was to manage the large number of fund transfers, while the fraudsters were safely based outside India. At the time of his arrest, he had the custody of 29 bank accounts and 30 active mobile phones, the police said.
At the same time, four persons namely Umakant Akash Joys, Ved Chandra, Hari Om and Abhishek Mansaramani, all residents of Delhi, were arrested. They are directors in the shell companies being used in the scam. One accused Arvind, who had induced three of these persons to become directors, for a one-time payment, was also arrested. These accused further revealed the involvement of two Chartered Accountants, Avik Kedia and Ronak behind creation of these shell companies in connivance with Chinese nationals and both of them were arrested the same day. Subsequently, on the basis of investigation into the money trail, accused Sashi Bansal and Mithlesh Sharma, were arrested for their role in providing bogus companies and bank accounts to the Chinese fraudsters.
The CAs, Avik and Ronak disclosed that they would create shell companies in the name of their family members, friends and employees and then sell these companies to Chinese nationals for 2-3 lakh rupees each. They would also undertake other activities for these Chinese nationals with whom they were in touch through Telegram, Dingtalk, WeChat, etc. This would include arranging for bank accounts, payment gateways, other dummy directors, etc. for which they would charge a specific amount. The CA, Avik Kedia has created over 110 shell companies for the Chinese fraudsters.
The Chinese fraudsters and their local operatives also used sophisticated software and financial tools for automated fund transfer to manage the enormous scale of the fraud.
Names of several Chinese nationals have been revealed so far, the police said. Investigation in respect of their whereabouts, specific roles and their large fraud network is underway. According to the current estimates, the total cheated amount is around Rs. 150 Crores and the total recovery so far in cash, bank accounts and payment gateways is around Rs. 12 Crores.
Divulging details of the police operation, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Anyesh Roy of CyPAD Special Cell of Delhi Police, said the police took notice of various posts being made on social media by people from across the country about two Mobile Applications, viz. Power Bank and EZPlan. While Power Bank App was available on Google Play Store, the App of EZPlan was available on the website www.ezplan.in. These Apps offered lucrative returns on investment with claims to double the investment amount in 24-35 days. The Apps also offered returns on an hourly and daily basis, and had investment options starting from Rs. 300 to several lakhs.
Since the messages were coming as Spam, and were inducing the recipient to download an App through a short (encrypted) URL, hence the activity was identified as suspicious and the Malware Forensic Lab of CyPAD-NCFL was asked to examine the App.
The Apps’ analysis led to some startling revelations:
- To deceive people, the Power Bank App projected itself as a Bengaluru-based Technology Start-Up involved in Quick-Charging Technology.
- The Server on which the App was hosted was found to be based in China.
- The App was associated with several dangerous permissions such as access to camera, read and write to external storage, etc. The Apps also took permission to read the contact details of the phone.
- The analysis done at the National Cyber Forensic Lab also flagged the Applications as malicious.
In view of the seriousness of the matter, especially since the Apps were being circulated widely across the country and there were hundreds of social media posts about the large-scale cheating and fraud being committed through these Apps, some even claiming the total cheated amount to be in excess of Rs. 100 crores, a dedicated team of officers with exceptional technical skills was formed under ACP, CyPAD, Aditya Gautam. The Team comprised of Insp. Parveen, Insp. Hansraj, SI Avdesh, SI Sunil, SI Harjit and others.
The Modus Operandi of the Apps was analyzed and found that the Apps, in order to entice large number of people to invest more and more money, initially gave a small payout amounting to 5-10 percent of the invested money. People, believing the “scheme” to be genuine, started investing more money as well as circulating and sharing the App with their friends and relatives. Once someone had invested a large amount, their account was blocked by the App, thus causing severe financial loss.
CyPAD Officer as a Decoy Customer
In order to identify the people behind the scam, a token amount was paid by the CyPAD Team using the App and the money trail was followed. The linked payment gateways, UPI IDs, transaction IDs, Bank Accounts, etc., used by the fraudsters were identified and analyzed. The connected mobile numbers and companies in whose accounts the cheated money was getting transferred, were obtained and studied. It was noticed that the accused persons had created a web of around 25 shell companies for routing the fraud money. These companies were located in different parts of the country and money was being moved from one account to another to hide the trail. This pointed to the involvement of professional accountants.
The technical analysis also brought out that several mobile numbers connected with the bank accounts and involved in the scam were found running in China. The mobile numbers active in India were studied in depth and it was concluded that one of the main persons responsible for running the scam was in Uluberia, West Bengal. He was identified as one Sheikh Robin. In order to exactly identify his location, his social media profiles were scoured that also revealed details of his foreign travel.
The details of directors of the shell companies were also obtained and their identities were fixed. Reconnaissance operations were conducted for a couple of days and their locations were exactly identified. In order to ensure that all the key persons involved in the scam were arrested promptly, it was decided to conduct simultaneous raids in West Bengal and Delhi/NCR. A team reached West Bengal and carefully studied the movement/location of Sheikh Robin. Details from his social media posts were used to pinpoint his location. On the morning of 2.6.21, raids were conducted at multiple locations at the same time and nine accused persons were arrested. This also included two Chartered Accountants namely Avik Kedia, a resident of Gurgaon and Ronak Bansal, a resident of Katwaria Sarai, Delhi, involved in the creation of these shell companies.
Unique Modus Operandi:
- The main Chinese handlers behind this massive scam, used to randomly contact people over various Apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram and hired the interested persons as partners for procuring bogus bank accounts, creating shell companies, circulating and promoting the Apps, transferring money, etc.
- They circulated the link of an ‘online App’ that induces and cheats large number of people by promising them lucrative returns based on multi-level marketing model. In the garb of this scheme, they designed and circulated mobile applications which also stole data of the user.
- A large number of such Apps have been circulated by the fraudsters, including Power Bank, EZCoin, Sun Factory, Lightening Power Bank, etc. Some of these fraudulent, malicious Apps were also listed on Google Play Store. Most of these Apps were promoted through YouTube channels, Telegram channels and WhatsApp chat links sent through bulk SMSes.
- Once the user registers on the Apps, he or she was repeatedly induced to invest money to earn very high returns. The App also induced users to invite their friends and relatives to join the App.
- The Chinese fraudsters have created an elaborate network of operatives across the country to launder the money collected from innocent victims of this fraud. Thus, they have engaged Chartered Accountants, Bank Account Custodians, dummy Directors, money mules, etc., in different cities across the country, for operating this mega fraud. Their footprints have been confirmed in West Bengal, NCR Region, Bengaluru, Odisha, Assam and Surat.
- Using the large following of their Telegram Channels, they recruited persons who can work for them for certain incentives.
The case is under investigation and help is being obtained from the labs of CyPAD to retrieve crucial digital evidence. Efforts are being made to identify the involvement of others, the police said. It advised the citizens to:
- Never download and install any App that promises quick money through vague methods. These Apps are not verified and may undertake malicious activities. If any such App has been downloaded, the same may be got uninstalled at the earliest.
- Never pay any money to such malicious, fraudulent Apps after getting swayed by their inducements and false claims and promises.
- Never forward the links of such Apps to your contacts. They may also become victim of this elaborate fraud.
– global bihari bureau
