Overview
- Officials report that more than 8,000 mule accounts in Jammu and Kashmir have been identified and frozen over three years, disrupting a key conduit for global scam proceeds.
- Central security agencies have directed J&K Police to consult banks to tighten onboarding and monitoring while locating intermediaries known as mulers who supply account pools.
- A study by central agencies cites handlers in China, Malaysia, Myanmar and Cambodia instructing recruits to create private cryptocurrency wallets via VPNs that bypass KYC checks.
- Investigators say ordinary account holders are lured by commissions, with operators controlling 10–30 accounts, using shell companies to move up to Rs 40 lakh a day and rapidly splitting transfers to evade detection.
- J&K Police have restricted VPN usage in the Valley, and a recent case saw officers trace and place on hold nearly Rs 40 lakh from a Rs 52 lakh digital arrest fraud within hours under new SOPs.