Delhi Police busts online job fraud racket with China links

Delhi Police has busted an online job fraud racket with alleged links to Chinese nationals, and arrested three persons for facilitating financial transactions for the gang, an official said on Wednesday.

The accused, Sabbir Ahmed (43), Mohammad Sarfaraz (32) and Mohammad Dilshad (20), were involved in arranging bank accounts to receive tainted money and converting the proceeds into cryptocurrency before transferring them to Chinese handlers through decentralised exchange wallets, a senior police officer said.

The arrests were made after a Tilak Nagar-based nurse complained that she had been duped of Rs 15.94 lakh in an online part-time job scam.

The victim came across a social media group after seeing an online advertisement offering work-from-home jobs.

“She was lured into investing money in task-based jobs with promises of high returns,” the officer said.

A case was registered based on her complaint, and during probe, investigators traced the money trail to bank accounts linked to the trio, police said, adding that the accused were arrested during raids in Uttam Nagar and Batla House areas.

Police recovered Rs 5 lakh in cash, five mobile phones, 10 bank passbooks and 14 cheque books used in the fraud during the raids.

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Dilshad, who is pursuing his graduation in Gorakhpur, revealed during interrogation that he had been in contact with a Chinese national via social media for about a year, the officer said.

“The foreign contact allegedly tasked him with arranging mule bank accounts to receive cheated funds in exchange for a commission of 5 per cent. The accused then withdrew the money, converted it into USD Tether (USDT), a type of cryptocurrency, and transferred it to wallets controlled by Chinese handlers,” the officer said.

“Sarfaraz, an MBA, managed the syndicate, while Sabbir Ahmed, a painter by profession, assisted in cash withdrawals for a 1 per cent commission,” he added.

Police said at least 26 complaints linked to the same beneficiary accounts have been reported on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal, involving transactions worth around Rs 2.60 crore.

Efforts are on to trace the larger network connected to the Chinese handlers, the officer said.