5 arrested for bank fraud in Telangana's Rangareddy

The Cyber Crime Police of Cyberabad arrested five members of an interstate gang on Thursday from Mira road for allegedly committing SIM swap fraud to siphon off funds from the 'target' bank accounts.

The fraudsters have allegedly been committing cybercrime since 2011 by the technique of SIM swapping to get access to the net banking of their target accounts.

The main fraudster is James, a Nigerian, who has been operating from abroad. He hacks the net banking credentials of his target through phishing emails in the name of IT returns. Later on, he collects the cheated amount through Bitcoins or Hawala, the police said.

"We received a complaint on June 29, 2020, where the victim stated that he took a new SIM card on June 21 which was just working for the outgoing calls. After some time he got to know that his internet banking account of Kotak Mahinda Bank was hacked and his id-password changed. He soon got to know that some unknown persons made Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) transactions from his account and siphoned off Rs 4, 25,000 by swapping the SIM card," said VC Sajjanar, IPS Commissioner of Cyberabad Police.

The police have seized 40 fake Aadhar cards with one of the accused photographs having different names. They also confiscated several mobile phones and letterheads of various orgsations used to collect SIM cards.

( With inputs from ANI )