Hyderabad, July 8 (IANS) The Telangana Cyber Security Bureau (TGCSB) has cracked a Rs 4.70 crore WhatsApp Boss fraud and arrested two mule account holders and agents.

The TGCSB said on Wednesday that it took up the investigation following a complaint that an unknown fraudster impersonated the company’s Managing Director by creating a WhatsApp profile using the Managing Director’s name and photograph and committed the fraud.

According to TGCSB Director Shikha Goel, the case was registered under Sections 318(4) and 319(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), along with Section 66D of the Information Technology (IT) Act.

Believing the messages sent by the fraudster to be genuine, the complainant transferred a total amount of Rs 4.70 crore to bank accounts specified by the fraudster.

During the course of the investigation, technical analysis and bank account verification led to the identification and arrest of Dosapati Krishna Sai, a resident of Sathupally, Khammam district, and Mandavally Shiva Nagaraju, a resident of Kothapet, Hyderabad, originally from Sathupally, Khammam district. They are accused numbers five and six, respectively.

Investigation revealed that the accused knowingly procured and supplied current bank accounts to cyber fraudsters in exchange for commission. They facilitated the operation of these mule accounts and received approximately Rs 4 lakh as commission, which they shared among themselves.

Further investigation revealed that Rs 1.80 crore of the defrauded amount was credited to the bank account of the accused, Nagaraju, who had arranged and provided it to the cyber fraudsters through co-accused Krishna Sai. Analysis of the account also revealed suspicious credit transactions totaling more than Rs 2.49 crore. The account was found to be linked to multiple cybercrime complaints registered in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.

The accused were produced before a court and remanded to judicial custody. Further investigation is underway to identify and apprehend the remaining absconding accused and to trace and recover the remaining proceeds of crime, the TGCSB director said.

She advised people not to trust a WhatsApp profile merely because it displays the name or photograph of a known person, as these can be easily copied and misused by fraudsters. She cautioned people to be wary if a contact suddenly requests urgent or confidential fund transfers, especially to a new bank account, and advised them to never rely solely on WhatsApp messages for financial transactions.

–IANS

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