Police bust multi-million cyberfraud

The police have busted one of the biggest international computer frauds allegedly perpetrated by 74 Chinese nationals and 26 Chinese and Taiwanese women. In the Chinese Yuan racket they have siphoned off millions from wealthy Chinese businessmen's bank accounts in mainland China, Police Media Spokesman, SSP Prishantha Jayakody said.

The fraud was exposed when a top team of Chinese police officers arrived in the country last month to investigate the million Yuan fraud perpetrated by Chinese nationals. The Chinese police team sought assistance of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to track down the suspects who operated from various parts of the country. The modus operandi of the Chinese fraudsters was to infuse fear into the minds of wealthy Chinese businessmen and extort money.

They posed as Chinese policemen and threatened wealthy men that they will be reported to the Chinese authorities about their ill-gotten wealth unless they transfer a part of the money to some bank accounts given by them.

The CID launched an investigation on the massive fraud on the instructions of the IGP, N.K. Illangakoon and found that the contingent of Chinese fraudsters had arrived in the country last month.

They had hacked into bank accounts of wealthy Chinese businessmen in China through the internet to gather confidential information relating to their wealth deposited in the banks. They also found their addresses and telephone numbers and coerced them to follow their instructions or to face repercussions.

Investigation

The matter came to the notice of the police in China, when the victims complained to them. They immediately launched an investigation to crack down the perpetrators. After a painstaking investigation they found the bank accounts of several wealthy businessmen in China were hacked by the suspects operating in Sri Lanka. For a while they were in a quandary.

The policemen wondered who could have masterminded such a massive bank fraud in China. However, exhaustive detective work revealed that a group of Chinese men and women who arrived in Sri Lanka were behind the racket.

They had used the internet to hack bank accounts and telephone numbers of account holders by using the Skype system. By posing as Chinese police officers they had threatened businessmen to transfer money into their accounts.

With the information furnished by the Chinese police team, the CID sleuths on December 21 searched premises used by the hackers after obtaining a court order.

A crack team of CID sleuths along with their Chinese counterparts following intelligence reports swooped on luxury houses and which they had rented out in Wellawatte, Kollupitiya, Kotte and Rajagiriya. They also found a number of computers in their possession which were used for hacking bank accounts.

It was a secret operation carried out by the Chinese team. Nobody in Sri Lanka had any clue of what went on behind closed doors where the Chinese lived. It was an ingenious operation and no one in Sri Lanka was affected. Ten days ago, 74 Chinese men and 24 Chinese women were rounded up and taken into custody by the CID sleuths in connection with the crime.

Fraud

The suspects were interrogated by the Chinese police and the CID sleuths and their statements were recorded in detail relating to the fraud. The suspects were produced before the Colombo Magistrate Courts and were remanded until investigations were completed.

When the case came up before the Colombo Magistrate Rashmi Singappuli on December 31 the 74 men and 26 Chinese women involved in the racket were ordered to be deported from the country.

The Magistrate also ordered all the suspects to be handed over to the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka so that they would be eventually handed over to the Chinese police for further investigations. Due to the increase in cyber crimes in Sri Lanka a special unit has been set up by the CID to investigate such crimes, police said.