Fraudsters use new trick to fulfill bank KYC to open accounts: fake company nameplates
DCP Datta Nalawade said fraudsters duped a 68-year-old man by claiming to be an investment firm. Chavan, a Bandra (east) resident, is a security guard. He has been arrested.
2 min read
Based on Chavan’s arrest and the bank accounts that were frozen, the cyber police have managed to recover Rs 82 lakh that were in these bank accounts. (Representational image/File)Fraudsters whose accounts are used to park siphoned off money in cyber crimes have come up with a ploy to circumvent KYC norms of banks: fake company nameplates.
In a recent case in which West Region cyber police were probing an investment fraud of Rs 1.12 crore, the accused Bharat Deepak Chavan (34) had put up a fake nameplate of a company outside a room in Bandra for nearly two weeks to clear the bank KYC. The account was then used to park money siphoned off by cyber fraudsters in exchange for a commission.
DCP Datta Nalawade said fraudsters duped a 68-year-old man by claiming to be an investment firm. Chavan, a Bandra (east) resident, is a security guard. He has been arrested. Several bank accounts that were used to park siphoned off money were created by him, he said.
“He would pretend to have a small company and approach the bank to open an account. For KYC, he would put up a board with the company’s name at a place in Bandra and also have people there pretending to be employees. Once bank officials verified it, he would take the board down,” Nalawade said.
These accounts are then used by the main accused to divert money and eventually the fraudulent money reaches fraudsters based in Kolkata. The police suspect in Kolkata the money is converted into cryptocurrency and sent to the main accused in another country.
Based on Chavan’s arrest and the bank accounts that were frozen, the cyber police have managed to recover Rs 82 lakh that were in these bank accounts. Chavan was produced before the court and was remanded in police custody.
There have been an increasing number of investment scams where fraudsters posing as international investment firms approach victims on WhatsApp to join their ‘training program’ for investing in the share market. They add the person in a WhatsApp group that has other people and lure them into investing money. Once the person asks them to return the money, they remove him from the WhatsApp group and stop responding.
You May Like
Photos
