Five Held in Mumbai for Phishing Money from Bank Customers

According to the news published by The Times of India on November 21, 2008, the Crime Branch arrested a gang of five phishers in Mumbai, India, who robbed nearly Rs 5.5 Crore from several customers and private banks through net banking system. Some of the banks duped by the gang were Punjab National Bank, HDFC, Standard Chartered and ICICI.

The Crime Branch identified the five accused as Yagnesh Anoop alias Shetty (age 33), Fazlu Rahman Abdul Khan alias Sameer alias Vicky (age 23), Chandrakant Kamble (age 48), Mohammed Faheem Rahman Malik (age 28) and Jameer Sayyed (age 27).

Rakesh Maria, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), said that the Crime Branch came to know that this gang was involved in designing fake pages of banks' website and sending bogus e-mails to account holders, as reported by ExpressIndia on November 21, 2008.

The Police disclosed that the e-mails sent by the gang stated systems were undergoing upgradation; hence, account holders are requested to give details of their credit/debit cards and password. In reality, the motive of sending fake e-mails was to acquire personal information such as customer ID and netbanking password to gain access to accounts.

The Police further said that as soon as the gang acquired personal details, it transferred funds from victim's account to their own account.

As per the news reports, the case came into light when Ajay Sharma, Managing Director of a private company situated in Tardeo, South Mumbai, filed complaint with the Police. Sharma received an e-mail from the gang posing as ICICI officials. The e-mail asked Sharma to provide details of his account including password. He followed the instructions given in the e-mail and found his account balance was reduced to Rs 903 from Rs 1.67 Lakh. Finding this, Sharma contacted the bank where he was told that money had been transferred from his account to another account and later on withdrawn. Thereafter, Sharma filed a complaint with the Tardeo Police.

The Police recovered two Maruti Zen and a Skoda, 15 cell phones, 25 SIM cards, 20 credit and debit cards, and cash of Rs 75,000 from the accused.

Related article: FBI’s ICCC Annual Report Discusses Fraudulent and Non-Fraudulent Complaints

» SPAMfighter News - 12/5/2008