Jammu and Kashmir police busts international cyber fraud racket targetting victims in US, UK and Canada

The Jammu and Kashmir police on Thursday informed that they have busted a sophisticated international cyber fraud racket in Srinagar and arrested seven individuals allegedly involved in the fraudulent activities online.

The Counter Intelligence Kashmir wing of the J&K police stated that the network was specifically designed to target victims in countries such as USA, UK, and Canada targetting them through fake Yahoo mails and google advertisements. The police said they operated through international communication masking technologies and used psychological manipulation and impersonation tactics. The police said that they launder money through modern digital and cryptocurrency channels. The transactions carried so far, police claimed, seem to be running in several crores.

The police claim to have recovered 13 mobile phones including latest i-phones, nine laptops, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) systems, SIM cards and networking devices and digital storage media.

"Seized material contains substantial incriminating evidence, clearly indicating a highlyorganized and technologically advanced criminal setup and well-coordinated cybercrime syndicate," said police.

The police initiated investigation into the case after receiving various technical and credible inputs, regarding the functioning of a covertcall centers engaged in fraudulent online activities targeting foreign/local nationals. The CIK carried out systematic surveillance, digital intelligence gathering and verification acrossmultiple locations, ultimately identifying a key operational hub at the Industrial Area,Rangreth in the outskirts of Srinagar. In furtherance to this a CIK teams conducted a swift and well-coordinated raid at different parts of Srinagar.

While explaining the technical modus operandi the officials said that the accused had established a covert unregistered call centre infrastructure using VoIP-based systems, enabling them to generate international virtual numbers, mask their real location using server routing and spoofing techniques and appear as legitimate service providers to unsuspecting victims.

"International calls were being generated and routed through this call center. A fakeYahoomail.com website and Google advertisements were used to target victims," the police informed.

The further informed that individuals across multiple countries were approached through organized call operations and online phishing advertisements. "Once a victim clicked on the advertisement, a toll-free number appeared on their screen. This toll-free number was operated by the suspects, who then deceived innocent people into providing their banking and other personal details," read the official statement. They further said that the "fraudulently obtained money was then transferred via banking channels, digital wallets, and cryptocurrency and routed through mule accounts. Then it was converted into USDT and other cryptocurrencies and then layered multiple times to evade detection and tracing."

The "illicit proceeds" were further layered,converted, and withdrawn to conceal their origin.The victims were contacted and deceived into believing that their devices or bank accounts werecompromised and they needed to pay for technical support or avoid penalties. The official said that no cash transactions were involved, highlighting the fully digital and sophisticatednature of the crime.

The police has registered an FIR for cheating, criminal conspiracy and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act. "Follow-up raids are being conducted to apprehend additional suspects. Forensic analysis of seized devices is underway and efforts are ongoing to identify victims and trace financial flows. The wider network, including national and international linkages, is under investigation.