Deputy manager of Axis Bank and 6 others arrested for hacking scam

Police in India have exposed a hacking or "phishing" racket and arrested seven people, including a Deputy Manager of Axis Bank, who allegedly hacked bank accounts of customers and withdrew money from them. A spokesperson for the bank said that "Axis Bank had identified an act of irregularity during its internal investigation and had accordingly lodged a complaint with the Bengaluru police. It is based on this complaint that the arrest has been made, The bank is fully cooperating with the police. There has been no loss to our customers". 

No loss to customers: Bank

BENGALURU: Sleuths on Tuesday arrested seven persons, including an Axis Bank deputy manager from Telangana , for allegedly siphoning off Rs 25 lakh from the accounts of nine customers.Towards the end of 2015, Axis Bank account holders — mainly from Bengaluru, Mysuru and Tumakuru — had filed police complaints, alleging unauthorized cash withdrawals from their accounts. The money had been diverted into various bank accounts, police officials said.The case was transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department’s cyber crime cell. The team zeroed in on the accused after tracking their mobiles and internet use.The arrested are G Gopikrishna Niranjan Reddy, 30, deputy manager, Axis Bank, Peddapalli branch, Karimnagar; G Veerabrahman, 23; CK Ramana, 27; Nageshwara Reddy (all from Karimnagar); CS Kiran, 33; his sister CS Padmaja, 35; and N Ramesh, 30, from Srinivasapura, Kolar.IGP-CID Hemanth Nimbalkar said the arrests were made by a team led by deputy superintendent of police MD Sharath.Nageshwara Reddy and Gopikrishna allegedly hatched a conspiracy to divert funds from the accounts, and the latter mailed Reddy information about 100 customers. They bought more than 100 duplicate SIM cards for phone numbers registered by customers with the bank. Kiran, Padmja and Ramesh allegedly helped them buy the SIM cards.“Using the duplicate SIM, the prime accused obtained one-time passwords of nine account holders from Karnataka and siphoned off Rs 25 lakh from their accounts. We suspect the gang has conned more customers, and we’re continuing the investigations,” Nimbalkar said.CID officers said the fraudsters used the bank’s mobile app integrating wallet, shopping payments and banking to swindle the customers. Gopikrishna had opened six fake bank accounts where money was diverted.Police learnt that one such bank account in the Mangaluru branch of Axis Bank was hacked, but the cash was not transferred as the cellular provider had not given the duplicate SIM card to the accused.Gopikrishna and Nageshwara Reddy had filed a false online police complaint, saying their mobiles were lost and they were applying for duplicate SIM. They had downloaded the acknowledgement and presented it in the mobile provider’s office to obtain duplicate SIMs. Originally, the mobile number belonged to a customer who had Rs 6 crore in the account.On December 29, SR Narasimhan, retired CMD of National Hydroelectric Corporation, filed a complaint with cyber crime police that Rs 1.8 lakh had been deducted from his account in 14 online transactions on the night of December 4. “First, my SIM was blocked. A day later, I realized I had lost money,” he said. He found out that his prepaid phone connection was changed into postpaid using fake documents. Narasimhan lodged a complaint with cyber crime police, triggering the CID investigation.We identified irregularities during an internal investigation and lodged a complaint with Bengaluru police. There has been no loss to our customers.Axis Bank