Five individuals were arrested by the cybercrime wing of the Malkajgiri police in connection with separate cyber fraud cases during the week ending May 30, uncovering links to cybercriminal networks operating across multiple states.The arrested individuals were identified as Yakub Ibrahim Khan of Mumbai, Maharashtra; Orsu Sreenivasu of Suryapet district, Telangana; Gunda Nagaraju of Bachupally, Hyderabad; Pilli Aditya of Mettuguda, Hyderabad; and Pagadala Krishna Chaitanya of NTR district, Andhra Pradesh.According to the police, the five were acting as mule account holders, providing bank accounts to cyber fraudsters involved in investment scams, job frauds, customer care fraud and digital arrest scams.In one of the investment fraud cases, a victim was lured into investing through a fraudulent trading application after being added to a WhatsApp stock market group. The victim allegedly lost more than ₹1.54 crore after being shown fake profits and persuaded to make additional payments.In another investment scam, a victim was induced to join a WhatsApp trading group and invest through a fake trading platform, resulting in a loss of over ₹80 lakh.Police also arrested a suspect in a job fraud case in which a Hyderabad resident was cheated of ₹2.67 lakh through a fake overseas employment offer. The fraudsters posed as recruiters and collected money under the pretext of processing fees and other charges.In a separate customer care fraud case, the accused impersonated representatives of online service platforms and extracted money from a victim by claiming that refunds were stuck in a digital wallet. The victim reportedly lost nearly ₹2 lakh.Another accused was arrested in connection with a ‘digital arrest’ scam in which fraudsters posed as law enforcement officials and threatened a victim with a fabricated criminal case. The victim was allegedly coerced into transferring ₹71.25 lakh to accounts controlled by the fraudsters.Police said all five accused had been arrested and remanded to judicial custody. Investigators are continuing efforts to identify and apprehend other members of the fraud networks.The police also processed court-approved refunds amounting to ₹50.31 lakh during the week and facilitated the return of the money to victims of cybercrime. Published - May 30, 2026 07:58 pm IST