A 25-year-old man from Assam who allegedly acted as a key financial handler for a cybercrime network linked to alleged Chinese operators and helped route money obtained through digital arrest and other cyber frauds across the country, was arrested, officials from the Gujarat Cyber Centre of Excellence said on Tuesday.
“In Ahmedabad, a senior citizen was placed under a fake digital arrest after fraudsters posed as officials of the Nashik Police and threatened to implicate him in a child pornography case. The police team detected that the victim was undergoing a live digital arrest and reached his house late at night. Superintendent of police (SP), Cyber Centre of Excellence, Vivek Bheda said that the accused, identified as Rafikul Alam of Sanchuka in Barpeta Road in Assam, was involved in 1,090 cyber crimes across India involving ₹ 1,071.55 crore. Police recovered details of 23 cryptocurrency wallets from Alam’s mobile phone, with transactions exceeding ₹ 16 crore, police said. The fraudsters allegedly demanded ₹ 20 lakh from the victim,” said Bheda.
Police said Alam played a role in routing funds from cyber frauds across India and converting them into cryptocurrency for the foreign-based network.
The team counselled the victim and stopped the payment before the money could be transferred to the fraudsters.
The investigation also helped the Cyber Centre of Excellence intervene in ten ongoing digital arrest frauds across Gujarat and other states, preventing victims from transferring money to fake accounts.
