CBI busts cybercrime racket targeting German nationals
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday claimed to have busted a cybercrime racket that was targeting German nationals since 2021.
The raids were conducted in association with the German authorities after the agency received a complaint on 12 February against Indian nationals.
The accused identified as Rahul Shaw, Shubham Sharma, Rajeev Budhiraja and others were booked under Indian laws after the complaint.
Since 2021-22, the accused started targeting German nationals by posing as tech support persons and used to gain remote access to their computer systems and bank accounts.
They used to inform the victims that their bank accounts had been compromised and manipulated them to send money to their cryptocurrency wallets.
The accused had siphoned off over Rs 6 crore rupees from German nationals till date, said a CBI official.
After receiving the complaint, the CBI sleuths raided six locations in Delhi. Kolkata and Siliguri and it led to busting a fake call centre.
The investigations carried out from 14 to 17 February, revealed that the cyber-enabled financial crime racket was channeling the funds through virtual assets.
This led to the busting of a fake call centre in Darjeeling and arrest of one of the key accused, Rahul Shaw.
“24 hard disks of computer systems used by the accused persons, containing incriminating digital evidence, were recovered from the said illegal Call Centre. Further operations are ongoing to identify the proceeds of crime,” the official added.
