HDFC Bank on October 19 said it detected certain suspicious transactions within its system. The bank reported the incident to the Delhi Cyber Crime Cell. Based on the complaint the police arrested 12 persons including three bank employees.
"Our systems detected unauthorised and suspicious attempts to transact in certain accounts. We reported the matter to law enforcement agencies for further and necessary investigation and lodged an FIR" the bank said.
Based on the FIR, the Delhi Police arrested three people who are working within the bank. The arrests were made in Delhi yesterday, according to a bank communication official.
The Bank said it suspended the three people pending the outcome of the investigation.
"The bank is extending full support to the law enforcement agencies in the investigation. At HDFC Bank, there's zero tolerance for any misconduct, financial or otherwise," HDFC Bank said.
According to a statement issued by K P S Malhotra, DCP/Cyber Crime, Special Cell, overall 12 persons were arrested including three HDFC bank employees in relation to the incident.
The fraudsters were involved in attempts to make unauthorized withdrawal from a very high value NRI account. The Police has recovered a fraudulently obtained cheque book from the suspects. According to the police mobile phone number identical to that of account holder's US based phone number was procured by the fraudsters and 66 attempts of unauthorized online transactions made by this group on this high value NRI account.
Racket busted
With these arrests, the Cyber Crime Unit of Special Cell has busted a racket of fraudsters involved in unauthorized attempts and hacking through internet banking and attempts of withdrawal using fraudulently obtained cheque book of a high valued NRI customer of HDFC Bank.
“They also procured an Indian mobile phone number identical to the USA's mobile number of the account holder registered in the KYC. 12 persons including 3 employees of HDFC bank, have been arrested,” the statement said.
HDFC Bank had filed complaint with Cyber Crime Unit of Special Cell alleging therein that there are many unauthorized internet banking attempts noticed in one NRI bank account.
Further there have been attempts to withdraw cash from the same account, using the fraudulently obtained cheque book. Attempts were also made to get update mobile phone number in the KYC of the same bank account by replacing the already registered US mobile phone number with similar/identical Indian mobile phone number, the statement said.
HDFC Bank further alleged that in all 66 attempts were made to access the internet banking of the account.
After the complaint was received, the Delhi Cyber Crime team was tasked to identify the culprits on the basis of technical footprints and human intelligence.
“On the basis of technical evidence, footprints, and human intelligence, multiple geolocations were identified. In all, raids were conducted at 20 locations across Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. During the course of investigation, in all 12 persons have been arrested. Out of the 12 arrested accused persons, 3 are HDFC bank employees, who were involved in issuing the cheque book, updating the mobile phone number and removing the debt freeze of the account,” the statement said.
The arrested persons include D. Chaurasiya and A. Singh—both HDFC Employees. A third female HDFC Bank employee too was arrested. The Police didn't disclose the name of the person.
How the crime happened
According to the Police, from the interrogation of the accused persons revealed that the main mastermind has come to know that an NRI account is dormant and has huge funds. With the help of one female employee of HDFC Bank, the perpetrators got issued a cheque book of the said account and also got removed the debt freeze of the account.
The investigation has revealed that HDFC bank employee was promised Rs 10 lakhs and insurance business of Rs 15 lakhs. In the earlier instances, there were attempts of withdrawal of money from this account. Two cases were earlier registered one at Ghaziabad, UP and one at Mohali, Punjab.
Chaurasiya and A.Singh (both employees of HDFC bank) had attempted to update the phone number linked in the KYC. Other associates had tried to login to the internet banking of the account for the purpose of transfer of amount. “All these attempts of withdrawal, unauthorized login attempts to internet banking, updating of mobile phone number was only possible due to connivance of the bank employees,” the Police statement said.
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