Representative image of cybercrime
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New Delhi: Raids conducted by Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh Police in recent times have shown that transnational organised cyber criminals are facilitating money laundering as a service through illegal payment gateways created using mule bank accounts, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Monday.
The alert has been issued by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Center (I4C) and warned citizens "not to sell or rent" their bank accounts or company registration certificate or Udhyam Aadhaar Registration certificate to anyone.
"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," an official statement said.
The citizens must immediately report any cybercrime on helpline number 1930 or www.cybercrime.gov.in and follow 'CyberDost' channels or account on social media.
According to the statement, the raids have revealed that transnational criminals have created illegal digital payment gateways using mule/rented accounts. A mule account is a bank account used to facilitate illegal activities such as money laundering and fraudulent transactions.
These illegal infrastructure facilitating money laundering as a service are used for laundering proceeds of multiple nature of cybercrimes, the statement said.
As per the information received from state police agencies and analysis by IC4, those involved scout for current accounts and saving accounts through social media platforms like Telegram and Facebook. These accounts belong to shell companies/enterprises or individuals. These mule accounts are controlled remotely from overseas.
"An illegal payment gateway is then created using these mule accounts given to criminal syndicates for accepting deposits on illegal platforms like fake investment scam sites, offshore betting and gambling websites, fake stock trading platforms, etc.," it said.
"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 learnt to be providing money laundering as a service and are operated by foreign nationals," it said.