Mumbai Crime: Con almost gets bank staffer to transfer Rs 33 lakh

Photo for representational purpose

The Panvel City police have booked five people for attempting to defraud a private bank of Rs 33.29 lakh. One of the suspects had contacted the bank claiming to be the owner of a steel company and even got it to transfer the money. After being informed by the real owner about the con, the bank alerted the other banks where the money had been sent and got the transactions blocked. No arrests have been made yet.

The police said an employee of the bank got a call on July 12, with the caller identifying himself as Iqbal Qazi, the owner of Iqra Steel tube Pvt. Ltd. The person said he had run out of cheques and wanted to transfer some money because of a medical emergency. The caller claimed he knew the branch manager and also took his name. He said he would be getting a fixed deposit done for R1 crore in the evening.

The employee told the caller that he would need to mail a letter in his company's letterhead. The persuasive caller asked if the account had received R22 lakh through RTGS. While she said no such transaction had taken place, she disclosed the account balance on the caller's insistence.

At 12.28 pm, a person claiming to be Iqbal Qazi called the same employee and mailed what he said was a letter from Iqra Steel. The staffer then transferred R33.29 lakh - Amar Choudhan (R7,70,739), Sumit (R7,93,000), Atul Kumar (R8,50,378) and Shahrukh Khan (R9,15,367).

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Within 10 minutes, a relationship manager rushed to the employee saying the real account holder had called to say that he had not requested any transfer. A few minutes later, employees of Iqra Steel arrived at the bank and said that the letter was fake.

The bank got in touch with the other banks where the money had been transferred and asked them to hold the transactions. It also filed a police complaint.

"As per the complaint, we have registered an FIR against the caller who asked to transfer the money and the other 4 whose accounts had received it," said Ajaykumar Landge, senior inspector of Panvel City police station.