Cyber criminals gobble up Rs19 lakh, all in an hour

After dna reported on a case of Internet banking fraud in which a former IIT professor was cheated of his life savings of Rs19 lakh, at least two more persons have approached the cyber cell of the city police with complaints of having been duped.

Two cases of net banking fraud were reported, one of Rs5 lakh and another of Rs19 lakh.

In its September 15 edition, dna reported how former IIT Kanpur professor Sanjay Dhande’s bank account, email and phone details linked to the bank were hacked and misused for four days, while a fraudster did 22 unauthorised transactions and duped him of Rs19 lakh.

Of the two latest complaints, a Koregaon Park-based businessman was duped of Rs19 lakh in an hour’s time. The incident came to light when Rajesh Kamdhar (42) lodged a complaint at Koregoan Park police station against 10 people in whose accounts the money was transferred.

Kamdhar said, “The incident took place on Thursday between 11 am and 12 noon. Prior to this, at night I got a call from my mobile company call centre from Nagpur claiming  I had applied for a fresh SIM card. I informed them that I had not, but in the morning, my card was blocked. I suspected something was fishy. I checked my net banking transactions and was shocked to find that Rs19 lakh had been transferred to 10 accounts in Jaipur, Mumbai, Bangalore and Bhopal.”

He said he informed the bank and saved Rs1 lakh which was about to be transferred by the criminals. “I went to the cyber crime cell. They directed the banks’ nodal officers to seize the accounts. I read dna’s story and filed the official complaint on Monday and have decided to lodge a complaint against the mobile company as well,” said Kamdhar.

A similar incident was witnessed when the accountant of a Kothrud-based furniture showroom lodged a complaint against an unidentified person at Kothrud police station. The showroom’s accountant, Vijay Alhat (45), said the incident took place on September 2 between 6 pm and September 4, 10.30 am.

According to the police, “The unidentified person hacked the bank account of the company, procured the one-time password and did three illegal transactions and duped them of Rs5 lakh.”

Sushma Chavan, inspector incharge of the cyber cell, said, “After dna did the story, many citizens approached us that they had been similarly conned. The problem is citizens come a long time after the offence is committed. If they come as soon as possible or on the same day, we can easily direct the banks to which the amount is transferred to seal them.”