A gang of cybercriminals involved in duping people into opening bank accounts in their names, which were later operated by associates of the accused sitting outside the state for illegal transactions, has been busted in Guwahati, a senior Assam Police officer said on Tuesday.

Four persons have been arrested in the city, with the racket also involving people from different states as well as abroad, mostly Dubai, he said.

Addressing a press conference here, Guwahati Commissioner of Police (CP) Diganta Barah said, "A complaint was registered earlier this year by a Guwahati resident, claiming that an acquaintance had made him open a bank account but had not handed him the cheque book and passbook even after several months." Investigation into the case led to the arrest of four persons, mainly agents in the racket, and the seizure of various incriminating items from a rented flat in Hatigaon area of the city, he said.

Among the seized items were 44 cheque books, 12 bank passbooks, 49 ATM cards, seven foreign currency of UAE and Thailand, seven UPI scanners and one international driving permit.

"People must be alert and aware of such scams. We request people not to make any payment without proper verification," he said.

Barah said cybercriminal gangs require several bank accounts for multiple transactions of the money generated by duping gullible citizens through various scams over telephone or internet.

"These gangs do not use their own bank accounts as that would give clues to the investigating agencies, which will lead to the cybercriminals," he said.

"Cyber gangs have started employing agents to open bank accounts in the name of genuine persons with genuine documents, and these accounts are operated by the cybercriminals for generating money through cybercrime," he said.

These agents target unsuspecting persons, mainly illiterate and of lower economic strata. The phone numbers to be linked in the respective bank accounts are provided by the agents, who obtain SIM cards of different mobile service providers under fake names.

The agents collect the account kits containing passbook, ATM cards, cheque book, etc. and hand those over to their associates, who then pass these on by post to others in the gang sitting mainly in other states and abroad too (mainly in Dubai), the police officer claimed.

"As the linked mobile numbers are provided by these agents only, the cybercriminal gang activates the ATM cards through mobile banking and then starts operating the accounts," he said.

"The main agent receives Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000 against each such account provided upward, while the one (agent) who gets the account opened is paid about Rs 5,000," Barah added.

The CP highlighted that the original account holders become liable for allowing their accounts to be used in cybercrime and may face legal action too as the actual criminals cannot be traced.

"These types of bank accounts used by cybercriminals are termed as mule accounts," he added.

"The city police appeal everyone not to open bank accounts and hand it over to someone as that may land the account holder in serious trouble, including arrest, as in all likelihood the account is used for cybercrime," Barah asserted.

He also mentioned various other modus operandi of cyber criminals, like sending out SMS stating that the power connection will be snapped if an amount is not paid through the web link provided.

Artificial Intelligence-enhanced voice messages to request for monetary help from known people are also being used now, besides various other ways to trap people into making payments through virtual mode, he added.

He said the city's cyber police station has registered 606 cases since it became functional in September last year.

"A total of Rs 35.51 crore were reported lost by the complainants in these cases. We have recovered minuscule Rs 2.55 crore only," Barah added.

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