Uttar Pradesh: Mobile banking scam to launder money busted

LUCKNOW: The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of UP Police on Sunday arrested 14 persons for purchasing SIM cards through forged documents and making fraudulent mobile transactions after opening accounts through online KYC submission, an option introduced by banks during the pandemic.
ADG (law and order) Prashant Kumar said the accused opened accounts online in different banks in Delhi and laundered money through them.At least 250 SIMs and wrappers were seized, he said. Cops blew the lid off the scam during interrogation of a retired soldier recently nabbed for espionage.
IG, ATS, G K Goswami said, it’s a new financial fraud in which transactions worth lakhs were done from banks in Delhi at kiosks, without using ATM card. The gang kingpin, Prem Singh, was arrested from Moradabad.
“Singh purchased pre-activated SIMs from retailers and sold them for a premium. Between July 2020 and January 2021, he sold nearly 1,500 pre-activated SIMs to people in NCR and Delhi,” said the IG.
A lookout notice has also been issued against a foreign national, who purchased a SIM card from Singh to open accounts in various banks, transfer money from unknown sources and then withdraw it.
Elaborating on the modusoperandi, Goswami said, the accused formed a ‘banking bridge’ to exploit loopholes in the banking system during pandemic when most banks introduced online submission of Know Your Customer (KYC) forms.
“Mobile numbers of beneficiaries were added to these accounts. During transactions, beneficiaries had to visit a kiosk or ATM, enter the account number and own mobile number following which an SMS was sent to account holder’s mobile, who had to enter a PIN for approval,” he said.
As soon as an approval was made, the SMS was sent to the beneficiary with OTP, which enabled transaction without ATM card. Taking advantage of the loophole, the accused opened accounts with fake documents and then purchased pre-activated SIM cards.
ATS personnel got a whiff about the case while interrogating Saurabh Sharma, a retired signal man, arrested on January 8 for sharing information with ISI. His wife Pooja Sharma’s KYC was used to open an online account and transactions were done.
Mohammad Faheem, Saimul Hasan, Hariom Arora, Tarun Surya, Piyush Varshney were arrested from Sambhal, Prem Singh, Chandra Kishor from Moradabad. Their aides, Anshul Kumar Saxena and Prashant Gupta were nabbed from Amroha. All were sent to jail, said an ATS official.