Rs 10 crore reward-app scam money traced to Kuwait bank

A simple phone app that promised a few rupees for every reward you redeemed ended up sending fake traffic fine messages to thousands of people, and the money trail led all the way to a bank account in Kuwait.

Delhi Police say they have busted a nationwide cyberfraud network worth more than Rs 10 crore (about KD 37,000), after 544 people filed complaints about being tricked through fake SMS links. Five people have been arrested so far, and investigators believe more arrests could follow.

For readers in Kuwait, this case is a reminder of how these scams often link to bank accounts here. We’ve covered warnings over phone and SIM resale cash schemes in Kuwait before, and the pattern is similar: ordinary people’s accounts or phones get used, often without them fully understanding what’s happening.

How did this start?

The case began last year with a single complaint. A man received an SMS that looked like a payment link for a traffic challan (traffic fine notice). He clicked it, and lost Rs 2.2 lakh from his credit card in an unauthorised transaction.

Joint Commissioner of Police Nupur Prasad set up a team under Deputy Commissioner of Police Amit Goel to dig into the case. Technical checks showed the phone number used to send the fake messages was registered to a resident of Jabalpur, a city in central India.

Police then found that around 3,300 phishing SMSs had been sent from that single number since 3 November last year, reaching people across several Indian states.

Who was actually behind the messages?

It turned out the registered phone owner wasn’t the one sending the messages. His nephew, a school student, had downloaded an app shared through a WhatsApp group, and that app was quietly doing the damage.

Whenever someone redeemed a reward on the app, their phone screen locked for about 30 seconds. In that short window, the app automatically fired off 9 to 12 SMS messages, disguised as traffic fine notices, delivery alerts and reward point messages. Users received just Rs 1 to 3 (a few fils in Kuwaiti terms) for each redemption, with no idea their phone was being used to defraud strangers.

This is very close to what we described in an online shopping scam that cost a Kuwait shopper KD 200 – a tempting offer hides a much bigger trap underneath.

So where does Kuwait come into this?

This is the part that matters most for readers here. Investigators followed the stolen money and found it had passed through an account with National Bank of Kuwait. That discovery turned a local Delhi fraud case into an international one.

From there, police focused on the financial trail behind the reward payouts. They found the money was being moved through an account in the name of Shree Balaji Enterprises, a company registered in Mumbai, allegedly run by Moti Singh Baghela of Udaipur.

Police say nearly Rs 2 crore (about KD 7,400) was paid out in small amounts to more than 41,000 users in just three days, which is how the scheme managed to look harmless to each individual user while draining victims on a huge scale.

Who has been arrested?

1. Moti Singh Baghela, arrested in Mumbai, allegedly operated the payout account for Shree Balaji Enterprises.
2. Harshpal, arrested in Lucknow, allegedly operated another bank account linked to the network.
3. Vicky, arrested in Dayalpur, northeast Delhi, allegedly helped open current accounts in Delhi and Noida.
4. Vishal Das Vaishnav, arrested in Rajasthan, allegedly arranged the company’s incorporation and its bank account.
5. Barjesh Kumar, arrested in Punjab, allegedly helped open another account used to fund the payout account, using a customer’s documents in exchange for a commission.

Police recovered 15 digital devices, 59 debit cards, 52 passbooks and cheque books, 14 company stamps, 5 POS machines, 8 QR-code scanners, a car and a gold chain during the investigation. Officers say the probe is still ongoing.

What this means for people in Kuwait

There’s no suggestion anyone in Kuwait is accused of wrongdoing here – the Kuwait-linked account appears to be where part of the stolen money passed through, not where the scam was run. But the case is a useful warning for anyone living here.

Fraud networks like this one often look for bank accounts anywhere in the world to move money quickly, which can sometimes mean innocent account holders get caught up without knowing it. We’ve seen similar patterns in cases closer to home, like a scam where one app approval wiped out a bank balance and a KD 1 link that drained an entire account.

A fake Germany job offer cost a Hawally woman KD 1,000 earlier this month, showing these schemes keep finding new disguises, from job offers to traffic fines to reward points. For more on cases like this, see our international news coverage.

If you ever get an SMS about a traffic fine, delivery issue or reward points with a link attached, don’t click it. Go directly to the official app or website instead, whether that’s the Ministry of Interior’s own channel for traffic fines in Kuwait, or your courier’s official tracking page.

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