MUMBAI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked four members of an inter-state cyber fraud network accused of targeting foreign nationals online and cheating them through unauthorised remote access to their computers. One of the victims, a 75-year-old Singaporean national, was allegedly duped of about ₹40.22 lakh.
According to the agency, the syndicate had been operating since July 2024, targeting overseas victims through online frauds. The Singaporean victim was allegedly targeted on July 1, 2024, while he was in Sydney, Australia.
Investigations revealed that the victim received an alert on his laptop claiming that the device had been hacked and advising him to contact a phone number displayed on the screen. When he did so, the accused allegedly posed as members of a cyber security team of a reputed multinational computer firm and persuaded him to install a remote-access application, giving them control of his laptop.
After gaining remote access, the accused allegedly induced the victim to log into his bank account, following which funds worth approximately ₹40.22 lakh were unauthorisedly transferred to bank accounts in Bangkok, Thailand; Muscat, Oman; and India. The money was subsequently routed through multiple mule accounts and eventually credited to accounts held by the accused in India, before being further dispersed to evade detection.
The CBI identified the accused as T Sharma, CK Ray, M Kumar and M Bilal. Based on specific information that the four, along with unknown associates, had conspired to run a transnational cyber-enabled financial crime operation from India, the agency registered the case on January 28.
The accused have been booked under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act, including sections relating to criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery of valuable security and cheating by personation using communication devices or computer resources.
As part of its crackdown on the network, the CBI conducted searches at 35 locations across several states, including Maharashtra, on January 30. Investigations are ongoing.