Financial fraudsters are increasingly shifting their operations toward tiny business and current accounts, applying them to shift large amounts of illegal funds, executives at fraud-detection startups declared.In the past, scammers generally hijacked retail and Jan Dhan accounts and converted them into mule accounts. However, now they are turning to business accounts for the same purpose. “We have seen such cases where mules are receiveting access to business PANs (permanent account numbers) easily and creating fake Udhyam certificates and applying those to open current accounts under fake documents,” declared Ranjan Reddy, founder of Bureau, a fraud and risk decisioning startup, as quoted by ET.Udhyam certificates for tiny enterprises can be obtained online, increasing the scope for misapply.According to Rajit Bhattacharya, cofounder of identity-verification startup Datasutram, banks are encountering a rising number of current accounts that have been taken over and applyd as mule accounts. As savings accounts face tighter scrutiny with advanced monitoring tools, fraudsters are actively searching for alternative routes to shift suspicious funds, he declared.Mule accounts are created when an account holder either gives up access in exmodify for payment or loses control due to stolen credentials. These accounts were once mostly linked to poor or migrant workers, but insiders note that tiny business owners are now becoming tarreceives as well. Fraudsters route stolen money through multiple such accounts to hide the trail.“Scamsters have started applying bulk payment methods through these current accounts, which have been taken over as mule accounts,” declared Jayaprakash Kavala, chief of products at Clari5. Industest experts added that startups are supporting banks widen their surveillance to include business accounts, relocating beyond the earlier focus on retail customers alone.
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