New Delhi: After Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged to avoid the threat of 'digital arrest', the investigating agencies have intensified their action. Under this, ED has filed a chargesheet against eight people in a case in Karnataka. The amount of fraud in this is about Rs 159 crore.

All the eight accused arrested in the case are currently in judicial custody. The ED said in a statement that it filed a chargesheet against eight accused in a PMLA court in Bengaluru last month. The investigating agency said, 'The investigation found that there is a huge network of cyber scams in India, including fake stock market investments and digital arrests, which are mainly carried out through platforms like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Telegram.'

The lure of more profits is given

In the stock market investment scam, popularly known as the pig butchering scam, people are lured with the promise of high profits using fake websites and deceptive WhatsApp groups. These deceptive WhatsApp groups appear to be linked to reputed financial companies.

The ED said that some of the victims of this scam were 'digitally arrested' by the accused posing as Customs and CBI officials, then forced them to transfer huge amounts of money to shell companies. The ED said that the accused obtained hundreds of SIM cards to carry out the fraud which were either linked to the bank accounts of shell companies or were used to create WhatsApp accounts. These anonymous SIM cards enable the scammers to deceive the victims and reduce the risk of their immediate detection.

Amount converted into cryptocurrency

ED said that the accused had created 24 shell companies in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and some other states to receive and legalize the money obtained from cyber crimes. These shell companies are mainly registered on coworking spaces (where no real business takes place). As proof of starting the business, they had filed fake bank statements before the Registrar of Companies. ED investigation found that the accused converted the money received into cryptocurrency and transferred it abroad. ED filed a chargesheet in this case on October 10 and the court took cognizance of it on October 29.

I4C issued new advisory

The Indian Cyber ​​Crime Coordination Center (I4C) on Sunday issued a new advisory, appealing people to be cautious of 'digital arrest'. It said that the people making video calls are not police, CBI, customs officers or judges, but cyber criminals. The organization working under the Union Home Ministry asked people in the advisory not to fall prey to these 'tricks' and immediately report such crimes on the National Cyber ​​Crime Helpline 1930 or on the official portal related to cyber crimes. Prime Minister Modi raised the issue of 'digital arrest' in his monthly radio program 'Mann Ki Baat' on October 27.