Government warns against illegal payment gateways that facilitate money laundering

Weeks after the Maharashtra government partnered with L&T Technology Services to create a advanced cyber command and control center in Navi Mumbai, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) along with the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Center (I4C) has issued an alert against illegal payment gateways that facilitate money laundering.

The Gujarat Police and Andhra Pradesh Police have found that transnational criminals have created illegal digital payment gateways using mule or rented accounts in a recent nationwide raid, according to the MHA statement.

This illegal infrastructure that enables money laundering as a service is used to launder proceeds of various kinds from cybercrime.

Some of the payment gateways identified during operations conducted during the police raids include PeacePay, RTX Pay, PoccoPay and RPPay.

State police agencies and analysis by India’s Cybercrime Coordination Center have shown that checking and savings accounts of shell companies or individuals are being scooped up through social media platforms such as Telegram and Facebook.

As a preventive measure, I4C warned banks to carry out necessary checks in identifying misuse of bank accounts used to set up illegal payment gateways. Moreover, it also warned that illegal funds deposited into such bank accounts would face legal consequences, including arrest.

This comes almost two months after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) issued a money laundering operation is operated by illegal gaming and gambling apps through kirana stores.

(The story will be updated soon.)