Cybercrooks Target Pune Colleges to Recruit Students for Mule Bank Accounts, Police Probe Reveals

Pune, 10th March 2026: An investigation into multiple online share-trading fraud cases has led the Pune city police to uncover the use of several bank accounts belonging to college students that were allegedly exploited by cybercriminals to move illicit funds. Officials said more than 15 such accounts have been identified so far and were reportedly used as “mule accounts” to route money obtained through online scams.

Police said the discovery was made while probing eight separate cyber fraud cases registered in the city. As part of the investigation, the cyber police traced the movement of funds through various bank accounts after the FIRs were filed. According to officials, fraudsters typically transfer the cheated amount through multiple accounts to make the money trail difficult to track before moving it to their primary accounts.

Senior Inspector Swapnali Shinde from the Pune cyber police station said investigators contacted several account holders after identifying where the funds had been transferred. “When we summoned some of the account holders for questioning, we found that several of the bank accounts belonged to college students in Pune,” she said.

In one of the major cases being investigated, involving an alleged share-trading fraud of more than Rs22 crore, police examined over 1,235 bank accounts through which the money had been circulated. During the process, investigators found that the accused had carried out more than 82,000 transactions to move the funds and obscure the trail.

Police called the students, all of whom are adults, for questioning to understand how their accounts were linked to the frauds. According to Shinde, many of them claimed that unidentified individuals had approached them on college campuses and offered money in exchange for access to their bank accounts. The students were reportedly promised either a small monthly commission or a one-time payment of around Rs1,500 to Rs2,000 in return for sharing account details such as cheque books and banking credentials.

Investigators believe that after obtaining the account information, including net banking access, PINs and ATM card details, the fraudsters used these accounts to receive and transfer money obtained through various online scams, including fake share-trading and online shopping frauds.

Police said the students are not currently being treated as accused in the cases, but the accounts linked to the transactions have been frozen as part of the ongoing investigation.

Officials added that the cyber police plan to conduct awareness campaigns in colleges across the city to caution students against sharing their bank account details with strangers. Authorities have urged young account holders to remain vigilant and avoid offers that involve handing over banking credentials for quick financial gain.