Shadow Banking in Your Pocket: Exposing Android App Used by Money Mules

In October 2023, CloudSEK identified a critical loophole within India's banking infrastructure. This loophole was actively exploited by Chinese cybercriminals to orchestrate a large-scale money laundering scheme targeting Indian citizens. The scheme leveraged a network exceeding hundreds of thousands of compromised "money mule" accounts to funnel illicit funds through fraudulent payment channels, ultimately transferring them back to China.

CloudSEK's Threat Intelligence (TI) team continued its investigation and has uncovered a network of money mules, posing a significant risk to the Indian banking ecosystem. This report focuses on a malicious mobile application (APK) identified as a key tool for onboarding and managing these money mules. Through in-depth analysis, we reveal the functionalities of this APK and the vulnerabilities it exploits, shedding light on the inner workings of this criminal operation.