Rs 1.2 crore stolen from private bank in multi-city fraud

KOLKATA: Armed with a fake letter, fraudsters posed as cyber crime officials and got around Rs 1.2 crore transferred from a Kolkata bank account, earlier frozen on a request by Hyderabad Police, in a multi-city loan app fraud case.
The incident occurred in April, but came to light on Monday when a private bank official lodged a complaint with Hyderabad cyber crime police about an attempt by fraudsters to siphon money off frozen bank accounts in their Gurgaon branch.
Kolkata Police, too, said they received a complaint from the bank last month. “A probe is on. We are cooperating with Hyderabad Police. Besides technical help, the STF is also probing the leads,” an officer said.
According to the complaint, on April 21, a man approached the private bank branch in Alipore with a fake letter saying that the office-in-charge, cyber cell police, Lalbazar, has directed the bank to defreeze 12 accounts and transfer the amount to an SBI account. “The fraudster also showed a fake police ID card and the bank officials transferred around Rs 1.2 crore to the SBI account,” cyber crime ACP KVM Prasad said.
“From the SBI account, the money was transferred to multiple accounts and withdrawn immediately,” he added. Police sources said around Rs 1.2 crore was initially transferred to an SBI account of Anand J in RGI Airport SBI branch. “The details of the account holder are all fake,” police said.
A Kolkata Police officer said: “We are also investigating how the accused had first called up the branch manager, threatened him with police summons and then came down to the bank to force him to unlock the frozen accounts.”
The fraudsters also sent a fake letter in the name of Hyderabad cyber crime police to Udyog Vihar branch of ICICI bank in Gurgaon in the third week of April, asking them to unfreeze 39 accounts linked to a loan app fraud case registered in Hyderabad.
“In the letter, instructions were given to transfer the amount from frozen accounts to four accounts. But the bank officials alerted their Hyderabad office,” the ACP said. Bank officials verified with police and realised that the letter was fake and during the inquiry found out about the fraud at Kolkata.
“We have registered a case pertaining to the fake Hyderabad Police letter received by the ICICI bank in Gurgaon. The bank filed a separate complaint in Kolkata about the fraud committed in Alipore,” Hyderabad cyber crime inspector D Prashant said.