Hotel rooms for mules, couriers for bank kits: How Cambodia cyber syndicate’s shadow network operated in Pune

Arrest and questioning of Londhe led to a top tier handler who was using a pseudonym Sam David. It further came to light that Sam David was handling a network of hundreds of mule accounts and was in contact with international cyber criminals in Cambodia. Tracking Sam David was not easy. He was found to be using over two dozen phone numbers and was constantly changing his number and location. Following a concrete intelligence, Sam David whose real identity is Sambidhkumar Shripati Nayak, 22, a resident of Rourkela in Odisha was finally arrested on January 23. Probe has revealed that Nayak moved to Maharashtra to join Bollywood and also did small-time modelling before joining cyber criminals whom he met in party circles.

Hotel rooms with gatekeepers

“When we were investigating the online activities of Sam David alias Sambidhkumar, we came across half a dozen bookings for rooms at hotels in Hinjewadi, Mulshi, Bavdhan and some other places. A probe at these hotels revealed that mule handlers were booking these rooms for mule account holders. The rooms were both in ‘premium’ and ‘economy’ category and were being allocated based on the economic class the mule belonged to. ‘Economy’ for a snacks vendor and ‘premium’ for a businessman who had given his commercial account.” an officer who is part of the said.

The officer said that these mules were asked to hand over the entire kit of the account — the linked SIM card, debit card and cheque book.

“To top this, the cyber criminals had deployed gatekeepers. Taking away the cheque book and debit card and deploying gatekeepers ensured that these mules don’t change their mind mid operation. Once a mule account is used in a cyber crime to receive money, it is flagged with investigation agencies and banks. Then the process begins to freeze it. Thus one mule used to be kept in these hotel rooms till the time his account was frozen. Then that mule was given his cut and released.” said the officer.

Intercity courier and man to keep moving phones

Another officer who is part of the probe said nowadays these racketeers were hiring the intercity courier for a specific reason. “The bank account kits from the mules that included the linked SIM card, debit card and cheque book were required to be taken to another racketeer. This racketeer was using the SIM cards to transfer the money out from the mule accounts to be siphoned to the masterminds sitting in Cambodia using a specific modus operandi. The use of intercity courier, ensures separation between two racketeers and also reduces the risk of a racketeer getting caught while transporting.” the officer.

The probe has also revealed that the phones that were used to access the mule account using their linked SIM were moved around constantly by a dedicated racketeer to ensure that the device is not flagged. “In spite of using all these tricks, we were able to uncover the shadow outfit of the Cambodia syndicate. Our probe will continue into this specific module.”

Pimpri Chinchwad Police Commissioner Vinoykumar Choubey, who supervised the probe, had said after the arrests, “The arrest of the main handler of the international syndicate Sam David and his five accomplices has led our cyber investigators to expose and bust a vast network of mule accounts and their elaborate modus operandi. Our teams will continue to probe this syndicate and its shadow outfits.”