Like-and-earn scam: CA held for using client docs to open fake accounts

The accused, identified as Amit Jain, was arrested last week by the BKC cyber police. Representation pic

A 45-year-old chartered accountant has been arrested by the Mumbai cyber cell in connection with the like-and-earn scam. The CA was arrested from Gurgaon in Haryana. According to the cyber cell, he was instrumental in providing bank accounts to the scammers suspected of operating from Dubai.

The accused, identified as Amit Jain, was arrested last week by the BKC cyber police station. According to the cyber cell, Jain has been part of the like and earn syndicate, where victims were given different tasks to complete and, in return, received the money. After some stages, they were asked to make payments to earn money with huge interest, and then they ended up losing lakhs. Jain was arrested in a case where a 35-year-old housemaker lost 14.68 lakh to this scam and complained to the cyber police.

"During the course of the investigation, we started examining the Telegram group that was used to communicate with the victims, and they were asked to transfer amounts to certain accounts. After detailed analysis, we found that it was Jain who was providing account details, and we worked on those accounts to get hold of him," said an officer in charge of the investigation.

Jain formed 39 accounts in the names of 39 different companies using forged documents. Representation pic

According to the cyber cell, Jain has formed 39 accounts in the names of 39 different companies using forged documents, and some of the documents were related to his genuine clients. "He used those documents to open a company and then opened a corporate account; the same account was used by the scammers, and in return, he was paid 3% commission per account by the scammers," an officer added.

The officials have also found that the IP address of the Telegram channel used to scam people was in Dubai. "The syndicate is known for changing their locations sometimes digitally by using VPN to dodge the investigating agencies. Initially, most of the IP addresses were found in China, Hong Kong, and Nepal," the officer added.

Like and earn scam has seen one of the highest numbers of scams happening in the city since February this year, and most of the cases were transferred to the cyber police as the amount was above '10 lakh. The cyber cell has formed a special team to investigate the entire syndicate, just like the loan app scam was investigated, and the number of cases has reduced.

3%
The commission that was paid by scammers

39
Accounts formed using fake documents