01 April,2010 09:55 AM IST | | Kaumudi Gurjar
Fraudsters transfer money from Military Engineering Services official's account with help of duplicate SIM
A Senior official with the Military Engineering Services (MES) has been duped of Rs 4.65 lakh by internet fraudsters.
Joint Director of the Design and Consultancy wing of the MES Jitendra Acharya's bank account was hacked with the help of a duplicate SIM card and Rs 4.65 lakh was transferred to eight different accounts. The police suspect the hand of a crime syndicate in the case.
Acharya learnt of the fraud on March 13 upon going to an ATM to withdraw Rs 2,000. His account balance showed Rs 3,000. Upon requesting a mini statement, he learnt 18 online transactions were made and Rs 4.65 lakh transferred to eight different accounts on March 11 and 12.
Info on mobile
Acharya said, "I had all four security parameters intact for online transactions -- the username, login and profile passwords and self-generated pin -- that I used to receive at the time of each online transaction on my cell phone."
Acharya suspects that the transactions may have started from March 11 after the services to his mobile got disrupted. He had approached his service provider but was told that there were some network issues.
Later, on March 15, an executive of his mobile service provider informed him that on March 11 a person claiming to be Acharya came to the company's Camp branch and reported that his SIM card was missing.
The company issued him a duplicate SIM card and blocked the services to the original card. The PAN card that was submitted had a different middle name, still the SIM card was issued.
Acharya said that he received a letter from the service provider that said it had been misled (a copy of the letter is with MiD DAY).
Acharya approached his bank and the branch manager gave him a list of eight people to whose accounts the money had been transferred.
The eight accounts
Acharya said, "I came to know that barring one, all the accounts were opened between December and March." He added that one account was opened on March 10 in the name of Ahmad Miya Hussain and Rs 1 lakh
withdrawn in an across-the-counter transaction.
Acharya has registered a complaint with the Kothrud police station. A case has been registered against eight people, namely Fanish Kumar Shukla of Delhi, Rupvati Rajput of Bhopal, Manoj Saha of West Bengal, Sher Bahadur Yadav of Jaunpur in UP, Mitesh Ghanashyam Patel of Surat in Gujarat, Samir Ashok Toraskar, Rajesh Tuphani Kanojiya and Ahmad Miya Hussain of Mumbai.
The case has been transferred to the Pune cyber cell. PI, Sangeeta Shinde of crime cell is investigating the case.
