Ahmedabad: Nigerian gang exploited 4 banks' lack of verification

Four banks — Kotak 811, RBL, Catholic Syrian and IDFC — have landed in trouble for their failure to physically verify customers under whose names dummy accounts were being opened that has led to over 56 people being duped out of over Rs 2 crore. However, cyber crime cell of Ahmedabad police has deduced that over 4,727 accounts holders' details have already been phished by Nigerian cybercriminals who use it to create dummy accounts and siphon money out of India.

The cyber crime cell has now served notices to these four banks for their serious oversight and also drawn the attention of the national banking regulator to look into the banks' flawed e-verification practices. JM Jadav, ACP of the cyber cell said, "We have issued notices to Kotak 811, RBL, Catholic Syrian and IDFC banks after it was revealed that the Nigerian scamsters were making dummy bank accounts for siphoning out money taken from the victims."

During the investigation, the cybercrime unit found a major loophole in the process of opening a bank account through e-verification. Once a bank account is created, customers were able to operate the account within a week, but the verification was done several months later. "Taking advantage, the Nigerian gang created dummy bank accounts, which could have been avoided if the verification was done swiftly," Jadhav added. Incidentally, the gang first phished details of these dummy customers from fraudulent Income-Tax and banks websites.

Later, after gaining access to their money, it was being transferred to the dummy account, converted into Bitcoins and later transferred to a cryptocurrency wallet in Nigeria. As of now, the cyber cell unit has arrested nine accused — five Nigerian nationals operating from Mumbai and four Mumbai locals.