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The campaign of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the organized and cross-border cyber crime network that has spread across the country has intensified. Acting under ‘Operation Chakra-6’, the Central Investigation Agency has achieved major success in arresting 5 more key members of an inter-state and internationally linked cyber syndicate. This organized gang used to defraud common citizens, especially senior citizens, retired officers and women, of their entire life savings from bank accounts by luring them into the trap of ‘Digital Arrest’ and installing malicious APK (Android Package Kit) files in their phones.
According to CBI officials, the investigating agency had received complaints from many parts of the country of victims being defrauded of crores of rupees. After technical surveillance and thorough analysis of digital footprints, the agency conducted simultaneous and well-planned raids at multiple locations in Delhi-NCR, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Karnataka. During this, the five main accused of the syndicate were caught red handed. A huge quantity of foreign SIM cards, state-of-the-art laptops, mobile handsets, fake bank passbooks and digital records of dozens of Mule bank accounts have been seized from them.
The investigation revealed that the gang went beyond traditional call fraud and was using advanced ‘remote access trojans’ and spyware-laden APK files. First of all, the fraudsters used to scare the victims of getting banned drugs in the parcel, getting involved in money laundering, bank account being blocked or getting a notice from the Income Tax Department. When the victim became nervous, the fraudsters would come on video call pretending to be senior officials of CBI, Mumbai Police, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) or Enforcement Directorate (ED).
After this, they used to send a file (like CBI_Verify.apk, Police_Clearance.apk or e-Challan.apk) through WhatsApp, Telegram or SMS in the name of ‘Case Verification’ or ‘Security Investigation’. As soon as the victim downloaded and installed that file on his phone, that file would run in the background and take control of all the device’s permissions—like SMS, call log, camera, and contacts. After this, all the bank OTPs received on the victim’s phone were directly forwarded to the dark web server of the fraudsters, due to which the victim was not even aware of the money being deducted from the account.
During the CBI inquiry, many shocking aspects of the functioning of this gang have come to light. The thugs had prepared setups like real police stations, custom offices and court rooms at their secret hideouts. During the video call, police logo, Indian national flag, sounds of wireless set and fake policemen wearing khaki uniform were seen in the background.
The victim was forced to sit in front of the camera continuously for 24 to 72 hours, which is called ‘digital arrest’. The thugs used to claim that if he disconnected the call or informed any family member, he would be immediately sent to jail. In this atmosphere of fear, the money collected from the victim through his bank accounts, fixed deposits (FD), mutual funds and even by selling land, was transferred to the Mule accounts given by the fraudsters in the name of ‘RBI Security Verification Account’.
CBI’s ‘Operation Chakra’ was launched with the aim of completely dismantling cyber crime networks operating in India and their foreign masters. In the sixth phase of this campaign, the agency has not only targeted the fraud operatives at the grassroots level, but also nabbed the technical operators and hawala operators who were converting the defrauded money into cryptocurrency (USDT) and sending it to the syndicates based in countries like Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos.
The arrested accused had opened hundreds of ‘mule bank accounts’ by luring the poor with fake identity cards and a few thousand rupees. As soon as the defrauded amount arrived, it was transferred in several stages so that the security agencies could not freeze the money. CBI is now conducting forensic investigation of these financial transactions in collaboration with the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center (I4C) of the Home Ministry, the Reserve Bank and other international investigative agencies so that the lost money of the victims can be recovered.
CBI and cyber security experts have made a strict appeal to common citizens to remain alert. According to the law, no investigating agency in the country—be it CBI, police or ED—ever conducts interrogation over WhatsApp or Skype video calls, nor is there any provision called ‘digital arrest’ in the law. Citizens should strictly follow the following precautions to stay safe from cyber attacks:
Never click on any link or file with ‘.apk’ extension received on WhatsApp, Telegram or SMS from unknown numbers or install it on your phone. Download apps only from the official Google Play Store or Apple App Store.
If someone poses as a police officer on the phone and threatens to arrest or send you to jail, do not panic and immediately disconnect the phone and contact the local police station. In case of any financial fraud, without wasting a moment call the National Cyber Crime Helpline number ‘1930’ or lodge a complaint on the official portal (cybercrime.gov.in) so that the suspected bank accounts can be frozen in time.