Pune: While investigating eight different cases in a spate of online share-trading frauds, the Pune city police have discovered over 15 bank accounts held by various college students in the city that were being used to transfer stolen amounts, more popularly known as ‘mule accounts’.These accounts were allegedly given by the students to fraudsters on a commission basis or in exchange for a one-time payment.The Pune cyber police establish money trails in all online cheating cases after the registration of FIRs. Fraudsters usually transfer the stolen money to different bank accounts and continue moving the funds through multiple accounts before transferring it to their main accounts to create difficulties in the investigation.“After tracing the bank accounts to which the money had been transferred in the cases in point, we called most of the account holders to the police station to ask how the money had been credited to them. During this process, we came across the bank accounts of several city-based college students,” said senior inspector Swapnali Shinde of the Pune cyber police station.“In a recent share-trade fraud case worth over Rs22 crore, the city police studied more than 1,235 bank accounts through which money had been routed. To extend the trail, the fraudsters carried out over 82,000 banking transactions,” Shinde said.“We called the students, all of whom are majors, to the police station and questioned them about how their bank accounts were used by fraudsters to execute online share-trading or online shopping frauds,” said the officer, adding, “Their answers came as a shock to us. The students informed us that some people had visited their college campuses and approached them. The fraudsters asked for their bank account credentials, including chequebooks. They promised either a monthly commission or a one-time payment ranging between Rs1,500 and Rs2,000. And the students handed over these details.”Shinde said many students wanted to earn a quick buck to meet their retail expenses, take partners out for dates, or go on picnics and travel.“We have not made them suspects in these cases, but their accounts have been frozen for further investigation. After obtaining the netbanking credentials, PINs and ATM card details of the students, the suspects used their bank accounts as ‘mule accounts’ to execute online frauds,” she said.Shinde added, “We will soon start an awareness drive in city colleges to prevent such incidents. These are the students’ own bank accounts and they must not share their credentials with anyone.”What is a mule bank account?A mule bank account is a bank account, often belonging to an unwitting person, that is used by online fraudsters involved in scams such as online share-trading frauds, task frauds and digital arrest frauds to receive and transfer money obtained from victims.This trail helps mask the source of the defrauded money. Typically, there are multiple layers of mule accounts. After receiving money from the victim’s bank account, the funds are transferred to five or six other accounts. From each of these accounts, the money is further transferred to five to 10 additional accounts.In this way, thousands of bank accounts may be used to move the stolen money. The process is designed to prolong and complicate the police investigation.
