Teenager, three others held for online theft of Rs 6 lakh

Blocked SIM card of account holder before withdrawal

Four men, including a teenager, have been arrested for illegally withdrawing Rs 5.78 lakh from the account of a Axis Bank customer through Internet banking, police said on Monday.

Sonu Dubey, 27, Pawan, 19, Ravi Shankar Pandey, 40, and Bunty, 22, were held after Bhushan Kumar Jain complained that the amount had been withdrawn from his bank account with Krishna Nagar branch.

“The accused disclosed that technical support was provided by a Mumbai-resident named Mohammad Mirza Ali, while the mastermind has been identified as Pritam Mishra. They are yet to be arrested,” said Ajay Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East).

It is alleged that Mirza has access to login and transaction passwords of different banks’ account holders.

He provides the information to Pritam, who collects ATM cards with password and account details by offering money.

Pritam also has registered mobile numbers of account holders, which is used for one time password (OTP).

“For this purpose, he blocked SIM card of the account holder and re-issued it by using forged documents,” Kumar added.

Bhushan’s phone number was de-activated without his knowledge on August 17, but he did not find it suspicious and got the number re-issued. However, the SIM card was again de-activated on August 19.

On August 20, Bhushan was informed by the bank that Rs 5.78 lakh had been withdrawn through Internet banking.

He then reported the reported the matter with Krishna Nagar police station, and subsequently a case was registered.

Arrests

During the course of investigation, several raids were conducted and Pawan was arrested over constant surveillance. Pawan revealed about Sonu, Bunty and Ravi’s involvement, which led to their arrests.

“The cheated amount was transferred to six Axis Bank accounts of Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai through Internet banking on August 19. The money was withdrawn through ATMs at Mayur Vihar, Noida and Mumbai,” Kumar said.