Delhi Police has arrested three men in connection with an online investment fraud in which a 41-year-old man allegedly transferred ₹88,784 to multiple bank accounts after being promised attractive returns.
The case began as a relatively small investment scam, but investigators say tracing one ₹30,000 transfer revealed an alleged chain in which a bank account was handed from one person to another before being used to receive suspected fraud proceeds.
Police have recovered three mobile phones and are examining banking records, digital evidence and transaction trails to determine who ultimately controlled the money.
₹30,000 Transfer Leads Police To First Suspect
The complainant, identified as Mohan Govind, was allegedly contacted through an online messaging application and encouraged to invest money with promises of substantial profits.
Believing the offer to be genuine, he transferred a total of ₹88,784 into three different bank accounts.
An FIR was registered at the Cyber Police Station in northeast Delhi on October 24.
During the investigation, police followed the money trail and found that ₹30,000 of the allegedly defrauded amount had been credited to a bank account held in the name of Shoaib, 26, a resident of Khureji Khas in east Delhi.
Banking records and other digital evidence led investigators to apprehend Shoaib on October 25.
According to police, questioning of Shoaib then shifted the focus from the account itself to how access to it had allegedly changed hands.
Account Allegedly Passed Through Multiple People
Police said Shoaib disclosed that he had handed over his bank account to his friend, Mohd Ovesh, 22.
Further investigation led officers to Ovesh, who allegedly disclosed his connection with Mohd Adil, 31.
Adil was then apprehended for his suspected role in passing bank account details to other persons who allegedly used them for receiving fraudulent payments.
The sequence is significant because it shows how the name appearing on a beneficiary account may represent only the first layer of a cyber-fraud network.
An account holder may give access to another person, who may then pass the details further until the account reaches the people operating the actual scam.
This creates distance between the fraudster communicating with the victim and the account receiving the money.
Investigators are now examining the precise role played by each of the three accused.
Small-Ticket Frauds Can Still Reveal Larger Networks
Cybercrime investigations often receive greater attention when losses run into lakhs or crores of rupees. But relatively small transactions can also expose important parts of the financial infrastructure supporting online fraud.
In this case, investigators were able to begin reconstructing the chain after following only ₹30,000 of the total ₹88,784 allegedly transferred by the victim.
The remaining amount is still being traced.
Police are also trying to identify the ultimate beneficiaries — the people who eventually received, withdrew or controlled the funds after they passed through intermediary accounts.
This stage is crucial because mule accounts are frequently used to break a money trail into several layers.
Money may move from a victim into one account, then be transferred again, withdrawn in cash or routed through additional accounts before reaching the people controlling the fraud.
The more layers involved, the more difficult it becomes to immediately identify the organisers.
Why Account Handover Is Becoming Central To Investigations
A mule account is a bank account used to receive or move proceeds linked to fraud.
Some account holders may knowingly rent or provide their accounts in exchange for commission. Others may claim they were persuaded to share access for employment, loans or other purposes.
Police therefore look at more than simply whose name appears on the account.
Investigators may examine who possessed the debit card, who controlled the registered mobile number, who received OTPs, where money was withdrawn and whether there were messages discussing payment for providing the account.
Mobile phones can become particularly important evidence in such cases.
Chats, call logs, transaction screenshots and contact details may help establish whether an account was knowingly handed over and who instructed its use.
In the present investigation, police recovered three phones from the accused and are examining digital evidence alongside banking records.
Probe Continues Into Ultimate Beneficiaries
Police said no previous criminal involvement of the three accused had been found during verification so far.
That does not end the investigation.
The central questions now involve what happened to the remaining fraud amount, who ultimately received it and whether the three accused were part of a larger network supplying bank accounts for cybercrime.
The case also illustrates why cyber-fraud enforcement increasingly focuses on financial facilitators rather than only the person who directly contacts a victim.
The person making the investment pitch may be sitting in one location, while the accounts receiving the money may belong to people elsewhere who have handed over their banking access.
Following that handover chain can allow investigators to move from one suspicious transaction towards the people who organise, finance or ultimately benefit from the fraud.
For this Delhi case, that trail remains under investigation.
