Complaint was filed with Singapore Police by State Bank of Mauritius to track down the hackers

A complaint was filed with Singapore Police by the SBM (State Bank of Mauritius) for tracking down the unknown hackers, who have allegedly withdrawn INR 19 Crore from SBM's Mumbai branch.

A complaint regarding the hack was filed first time, in November 2018, with Mumbai police. Then the SBM had alleged that their SWIFT payment gateway got hacked on Oct. 2, 2018, in order to attempt transferring INR 147 Crore. Even though the attempt has been stopped after 1 of the 4 remitting foreign banks has raised queries regarding the transaction with State Bank of Mauritius, the SBM had already lost around INR 19 Crore by then, said the police.

"Bank officials have intimated us about lodging a complaint with the Singapore police," said Kishore Parab, the police inspector in charge of bank fraud department of EOW (Economic Offences Wing), specialised unit of Mumbai Police that investigates financial frauds.

Another official who knows about the case said that "since the company in whose account the funds were transferred is registered in Singapore, the bank has lodged a complaint with them. The FIR copy of the complaint lodged with the Mumbai police has been shared with the Singapore police".

The hack at Nariman Point branch of SBM was stopped when a London bank became suspicious after multiple remittance requests have been raised within a span of few hours, although it was Indian bank holiday. Moreover, the requests also exceeded the amount generally raised on one single working day. This immediately prompted the bank from London to raise query with the State Bank of Mauritius, after which process has been stopped, explained the official.

The amount of INR 19 Crore had been routed to a Hong Kong-based bank account in name of a company from Singapore found the Mumbai Police. "The Singapore company had two Chinese nationals as directors. When we probed their credentials, we found that the company is a shell company created for the purpose of rerouting of funds," added the official.

As per the sources, the INR 19 Crore amount was transferred further from Hong Kong bank to various other accounts, few of which are in Nigeria.

The Economic Offences Wing now is planning to send LRs (Letters Rogatory) to tie up investigation. Letters Rogatory is formal request to the foreign court for the judicial assistance.

» SPAMfighter News - 1/22/2019