OVER 500 people, mostly young men and women, have fallen prey to the “mule account” scam in Kerala’s hill district of Wayanad, cyber police sources said here on Tuesday. According to investigators, fraudsters from outside the district rented local residents’ bank accounts for money and then misused them for illicit transactions and other illegal activities. Several account holders in Wayanad are now facing cases registered in different States in northern and north-eastern India.

 

At least six people facing such cases are residents within the Kambalakkad police station limits. One of them has already been arrested by Nagaland police and taken to Kohima, a cyber police source told PTI. “Twenty-seven-year-old Ismayil was arrested and taken to Nagaland. Muhammed Fanish (28), another youth, was served notice by Dehradun police in a similar case involving a transaction of Rs 58,000 through his account,” the sources said. A case was also registered against Salmath, a local woman, by Lucknow police after her younger brother shared her bank account details with fraudsters, who then used it for a scam.