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The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Center (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has issued an alert regarding illegal payment gateways established using mule bank accounts by transnational organized cyber criminals.
These gateways are facilitating money laundering as a service, MHA said in a statement. As per the MHA, recent nationwide raids conducted by the Gujarat Police (FIR 0113/2024) and Andhra Pradesh Police (FIR 310/2024) uncovered that these criminals have set up illegal digital payment systems utilizing rented accounts. "These illegal infrastructure facilitating money laundering as a service are used for laundering proceeds of multiple nature of cybercrimes," said the MHA. The Ministry further said that the MHA, in collaboration with all Law Enforcement Agencies (LWAs) under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and guidance of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, is taking all steps to create a cyber secure Bharat. As per the information received from state police agencies and analysis by I4C wing, current accounts and saving accounts are scouted through social media (majorly from Telegram and Facebook), and these accounts belong to shell companies and enterprises or individuals. "These mule accounts are controlled remotely from overseas. An illegal payment gateway is then created using these mule accounts are given to criminal syndicates for accepting deposits on illegal platforms like fake investment scam sites, offshore betting and gambling websites and fake stock trading platforms," said the MHA. "Funds are immediately layered to another account as soon as the crime proceeds are received. Bulk Payout facilities provided by banks are misused for the same. Some of the payment gateways identified during operation are PeacePay, RTX Pay, PoccoPay, RPPay etc. These gateways are learned to be providing money laundering as a service and are operated by foreign nationals." I4C has advised citizens not to sell or rent their bank accounts and company registration certificate and Udhyam Aadhaar Registration certificate to anyone, it stressed. "Illicit funds deposited in such bank accounts can lead to legal consequences, including arrest. Banks may deploy checks to identify misuse of bank accounts that are used for setting up Illegal Payment Gateways. The citizens must immediately report any cybercrime on helpline number 1930 or www.cybercrime.gov.in and follow "CyberDost" channels / account on social media," added the MHA. (ANI)
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