Easy Money, Hard Lesson: Man Arrested for ‘Renting’ Bank Account to Fraudsters

Mumbai – A 26-year-old resident of Andheri, Sohail Basheer Shaikh, has been arrested for allegedly letting cyber fraudsters use his bank account to store money obtained through scams. The police revealed that Rs 5 lakh was transferred into Shaikh’s account, which was a portion of Rs 90 lakh duped from an 87-year-old retired pharma company director.

The fraud took place between December 20 and January 1, when the elderly complainant received a WhatsApp call from a man pretending to be a cybercrime officer from Delhi. The caller falsely claimed that the complainant’s bank account had been used in a money laundering case and that an arrest warrant had been issued against him. Under pressure and fear, the senior citizen paid Rs 90 lakh to the fraudsters.

During the investigation, police found that Rs 5 lakh of that amount had been parked in Shaikh’s account. In return for letting the criminals use his account, Shaikh was allegedly paid Rs 10,000. He not only provided access to the bank account but also handed over the cheque book and debit card, allowing the fraudsters to move the money further.

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A police team led by Senior Inspector Nankumar Gopale, along with Inspectors Sandeep Kale, Rupali Chaudhri, and others, arrested Shaikh. Authorities have now frozen 193 bank accounts linked to various accused individuals in the case. These accounts together held around Rs 27 lakh.

Police confirmed that an FIR had been lodged by the victim at the South Region Cyber Crime Police Station on Grant Road on January 23. The incident once again highlights how cybercriminals exploit ordinary people’s accounts to clean stolen money, turning them into accomplices—sometimes knowingly, sometimes out of ignorance.

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