Banking fraud: It’s a thriller script

KOCHI: In a major breakthrough, the Kochi Police have arrested two persons in connection with the phishing case wherein Shabeer Khan, a doctor with  Lakeshore Hospital, lost Rs 13.4 lakh through Internet banking facility. The arrested are second accused Hamid alias Mirza Jaffer and fourth accused Atta Ur Rehman. The arrests were made in Hyderabad by a team led by circle-inspector B S Suneesh Babu.
The accused were brought to Kochi and remanded in  judicial custody on   Thursday. However, first accused Muhammed Ali and third accused Sheik Rehan Ali are yet to be arrested.
“We are looking into whether the accused are members of the gang led by  Felix Ivdubuisi, the Nigerian who is in Kolkatta jail, after he committed an online financial fraud at Pondicherry,” said K Padmakumar, IG Ernakulam range.
Padmakumar said the crime was a well-planned one. “First accused Muhammad Ali, 28, a native of Hyderabad, hacked into the online bank account of the doctor after which second accused Hameed visited a Vodafone showroom at Cyberabad and procured a duplicate SIM card of the doctor using a fake passport made from Guhawati. On March 30, they activated the duplicate SIM which led to disconnection of the original SIM of the doctor,” the IG said.
The fraudsters first  managed to access the unique customer id and password.
Later, using the duplicate SIM card, they accessed the pin number from the bank to transfer the money from the account. The duplicate SIM blocked the alert message that are sent from the bank to the customer while making transactions,” circle-inspector Suneesh Babu said.
They, then, withdrew Rs 13.4 lakh and transferred it to 22 bank accounts in nine states across the country. The money was then withdrawn through 90 ATM centres. About 18 accounts through which money was transacted belonged to the  Axis Bank. Three of them were ICICI and one was of Kotak Mahindra to which the highest sum - Rs 2 lakh - was transferred.
The fraudsters had purchased several goods using the money which include Rs 18,000-worth jewellery item from a shop in Hyderabad. A probe team has now been sent to other states to investigate whether the holders of the bank accounts have any connection with the  fraudsters.
National security agencies will also be alerted as it is not clear whether the money has been used for private purpose or for extremist activities.