2 men held for stealing lakhs via net banking

CHENNAI: The CB-CID's cyber crime wing on Saturday arrested two Mumbai men for withdrawing Rs 26.55 lakh and Rs 75,510 respectively through fraudulent means from two separate accounts of two Tamil Nadu-based persons using net banking. The arrested, S Vinayak Shivaji Khandare (20) and I Ibrahim Ansari (25), have been brought to Chennai and remanded in judicial custody at the Puzhal prison.On November 5 2009,Tiruchi-based businessman S Salahudeen from Tiruchi noticed an illegaltransaction from his account through net banking and alerted the police and bankofficials, the police said. The transaction was found to be done by couriers.Cyber cell officials found involvement of eight couriers in Chennai, Mumbai,Kolkata, Bangalore and Sangli in Maharashtra.The couriers wouldwithdraw the amount and deposit it in accounts given by hackers after deductingtheir 8-10% commission. The CB-CID arrested C Sridhar of Chennai, R SureshRamdas and S Arun Kumar of Bangalore in January and February this year. InMarch, they arrested one of the prime accused, B S Sainath Reddy at Hyderabad.On May 17, a police team went to Mumbai and nabbed Khandare. He confessed thathe received Rs 50,000 from the account of the complainant.In thesecond case, Madurai-based engineer V Saravanan in August 2009 lodged acomplaint with the CB-CID saying that Rs 75,510 was illegaly transferred via netbanking from his account, following his response to a phishing e-mailpurportedly sent by his bank. He gave his user ids, login password andtransaction password. The money was transferred to accounts in New Delhi andMumbai. Cyber crime wing registered a case and a probe began. On May 19, policearrested I Ibrahim Ansari of Mumbai after finding that he had received Rs 25,000from Saravanan's account on August 22, 2009.A police officer said:"Hackers steal the id and passwords of victims either by phishing email or byplanting malicious software. They recruit accomplices or couriers through socialnetworking sites. They then get details of the couriers and transfer victims'money. They withdraw from these accounts a share after paying commission to thecouriers."