New scam exploits poor in city suburbs

Chennai: Scammers operating from Cambodia and Laos have found a novel way to deceive private banks and open bank accounts for transferring money from online scams. They use unorganised co-working spaces to set up fake offices and hoodwink banks.
The cyber crime wing of the central crime branch (CCB) attached to the city police registered more than 250 cases between Jan and Aug this year.Topping the list are 89 cases dealing with online trading and 45 pertaining to the FEDEX scam. Thousands of young people, including women, from India are sold by illegal job agents to Chinese-operated scam companies in Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos. Hundreds of them are from Tamil Nadu, particularly the western and southern regions, with a few from Chennai. These scamsters have agents in Tamil Nadu, especially Chennai, who source SIM cards and open multiple bank accounts. They target youngsters mainly from areas such as Thiruvottiyur, Ambattur, Tiruvallur and Vellore. These youngsters are promised 20,000 for an account. The agents first open GST accounts in their names and then take them to a local co-working office in the city using a day pass.
"They fix a banner of the fake company. An outsourced person appointed by the bank comes for verification and the bank account is opened. Apart from co-working spaces, commercial spaces in suburbs that are available for rent are also used for this scam," said a police source.
The details of the accounts are sent to scamsters through message-sharing platforms. This process is used to transfer the money stolen through online scams to different parts of the country. The agents often receive instructions from their handlers abroad on message-sharing platforms, specifying which bank should be selected every day. "When police catch the fake account holders, they usually do not provide any information about the agents. We arrested a few persons in Thiruvottiyur recently. Subsequently, the number of people agreeing to open the bank accounts have reduced drastically," added the officer.
An official of a leading private bank in the city said that of late, bank officials directly visit the applicant's place for verification. "We have also been creating awareness among elderly persons on different forms of online scams," said the official.