A 19-year-old lifestyle content creator, Hukum Singh Rawat, has been arrested by Delhi Police in this month from Lucknow for his role in an inter-state cyber fraud network. Rawat, a undergraduate student, had a massive online following with over 5 lakh followers across platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.
According to police, Rawat’s desire to expand his “influencer empire” led him to crime. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Nidhin Valsan stated, “He intended to hire artists and buy equipment to bolster his influencer career. But he needed money for that.” To fund this, Rawat began renting out his bank account to cyber fraudsters in exchange for a 4-5% commission on all transactions.
What is “mule account”
A mule account is a bank account that someone lets a criminal use to move stolen money. The owner of the account (the “mule”) gets paid a small fee or commission for their help. This allows the real criminals to hide their identity and makes it very hard for police to trace where the stolen money finally goes. By letting their account be used, the owner becomes a key part of the crime. Rawat was one of three people arrested from Lucknow for providing these accounts.
The fraud gang came to light after two separate victims filed complaints. In first case, a 28-year-old woman named Smita Verma was duped in a “work from home” scam on Telegram. She was offered a job rating hotels and was paid small amounts like Rs 150 and Rs 90 to build her trust. The scammers then convinced her to invest larger sums for “prepaid tasks,” ultimately cheating her out of Rs 31,800.
The second case involved a much larger sum. On 14th June a man named Dalip Kumar lost Rs 1.81 lakh after seeing an ad on Facebook Marketplace for a tractor. The seller, who was pretending to be an Army official, tricked Kumar into transferring money in instalments for fake booking fees, transport charges, and check-post clearances.
DCP Valsan said that police used “advanced technical analysis and financial transaction mapping” to trace the stolen money to Lucknow, leading to the arrests between October 7 and 14.
The other two men arrested were Alok Kumar a 32year old former e-rickshaw driver, had posed as a property dealer to open two current accounts, which he sold to the gang for a 1.5% commission. Another man Aditya Shukla 22 years had opened six different accounts and was receiving a 3-4% commission. The National Cyber Crime Reporting portal already has at least four complaints on record against this network.
Police are now searching for another accomplice, identified as Rahul. DCP Valsan added that Rawat not only used his own bank accounts but also “influenced some friends to open accounts” and provided their details to Rahul to receive the criminal money.
