Cyber criminals who targeted hundreds of HDFC bank a/c holders held

New Delhi, June 22 (IANS) A Delhi-based gang of cyber criminals was arrested for clandestinely taking out the money from the HDFC bank accounts of hundreds of people, an official said on Wednesday.

The accused were identified as Sunny Kumar Singh, Kapil and Pavin Ramesh. However, another accused, identified as Rakesh, is still at large.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (north) Sagar Singh Kalsi said a complaint was received in Cyber North through National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) wherein the complainant alleged that he received a message regarding reissuing of his SIM card without his knowledge following which he received a message regarding password change of his Gmail ID.

"On smelling something suspicious the complainant checked his SIM Card and found it inactive. After that the complainant went to the Vodafone store and found that his SIM card had been reissued a few days before," the DCP said.

Thereafter, the complainant checked his HDFC account statement and found that someone has taken a loan of Rs 11 lakh from his account and has transferred 1,00,000 from the loan amount to someone else account through internet banking. Based on this complaint, the police registered a case under section 420 of the Indian Penal Code at the Cyber police station on May 7 and began probing the matter.

After an investigation of over a month, the police arrested three accused people on June 20.

During interrogation it was revealed that all the accused are friends and residents of Rohini, Delhi and its nearby areas.

It was revealed that one of the accused Sunny Kumar Singh works in Credit Card Selling department of a reputed Bank at Ambience Mall in Rohini and has the access to records of bank from where he used to collect information of accounts that have exciting and alluring offers such as Instant Loan, Jumbo Loan, Smart EMI etc.

"The accused Sunny Kumar used to collect details of these accounts which include Mobile Phone number linked to the account, Gmail ID linked to account, Address of Customer and relevant ID Proof. Thereafter, he along with other accused persons hatched a plan to cheat Bank customers to earn quick money," the official said.

The accused would collect data of bank customers and co-accused Pavin Ramesh and Rakesh used to make fake ID proof through photoshop having their own photographs on fake IDs.

After this they reissued SIM cards of the phone number linked with the accounts. Following which the accused Sunny Kumar Singh used to change the linked Gmail ID of HDFC account so that he can read the OTP received on Gmail ID and the people were then subsequently cheated.

"Raids were conducted at the possible hideouts of the fourth accused Rakesh, but he was found absconding," the official said, adding that the investigation is still underway.