Banking fraud: Nigerian, Nepalese among three arrested

Investigators suspect that many gangs of international hackers are involved in similar crime in the country. The gangs operate from Mumbai and Bangalore and make calls to the targets on the pretext of changing their bank mandates.

The arrested have been identified Praveen Gupta (27), a Nepali national, Promise Eke (27), a Nigerian, and Tashi Wang Chuk (21) hailing from Sikkim, DCP (South) H G S Dhaliwal said.

Eight laptops, ten digital cameras and 17 Blackberry mobiles, worth Rs ten lakh, were recovered from them, he said.

The arrests came following a probe on money being fraudulently withdrawn from three ICICI Bank accounts, the DCP said.

It came to light that the huge transaction has been incurred towards Future Bazaar located in Mumbai and Bangalore from these three accounts, he said.

"We procured the details of the purchaser, as well as the delivery address given at the courier company, were procured. The courier company was approached and a police team along with a delivery boy went to the address but could not find anyone," he said.

The consignee was contacted on phone who told the delivery boy to deliver the parcel at Navada Metro Station in west Delhi. Chuk was arrested when he came to allegedly claim the consignment and his apprehension led to the arrest of the other two.

The trio allegedly used to make contact with e-bank account holders over phone. They also generated SMS's from ICICI Bank Call Centre for winning the confidence of account holders. They also used to arrange information regarding parentage, date of birth, name of the nominee and account numbers and used this to win the confidence of the account holder.

"They provide the same information to the account holders and in good faith account holder provide them other information regarding their account. Using this, they decoded their e-bank account passwords and login ID's and place purchase orders to Future Bazaar.Com on the basis of this hacked information," Dhaliwal said.

After placing the orders, they got the consignment through a courier company on the fake address by placing one of their associates to the mentioned address, the DCP said, adding that the goods were sold later.

Gupta came to Delhi in 2007. He stayed for an year in Uttam Nagar and returned back to Nepal, where he was engaged in the profession of a guide. During this time, he allegedly met with a hacker 'Kaka' who lured him to the gang.

Eke, who has a BCA degree from Lagos University, came to India on a business visa in 2007 and stayed in Chennai. He later came to Delhi and stayed at Malviya Nagar. The Nigerian has good knowledge of computers and started indulging in hacking.
Chuk originally belongs to Sikkim and worked for the gang and received the delivery parcels.