Dindoshi police registered a fraudulent case in which a Non-Resident Indian (NRI) has lost sum of Rs. 20.29 lakh from his ICICI bank account during February 27 and March 1, 2017.
The FIR was registered on Thursday ie almost a year after his account was hacked. One bank staff Nitin Ranje (31), who has been booked in the fraud case, has been suspended from the ICICI bank in Malad (east) branch.
The victim Balakrishna VN, who is working abroad, was shocked after he checked his bank balance of late. When the victim enquired with the branch manager, he was told that ‘bank received a request to change his registered mobile number and duplicate debit card, which was issued from ICICI bank’s Nalasopara branch’.
“The branch manager Deepak Laxminarayan Sharma (40) registered FIR at Dindoshi police station on Thursday after the victim Balakrishna VN complained of losing money to the tune of over Rs 20 lakh from his NRI bank account,” the officer added. However, no arrest has been made so far. The fraudsters first hacked the NRI account by submitting bogus PAN card at Nalasopara branch of the bank. After procuring the duplicate debit card, the fraudster naming Sameer Khan visited bank’s Malad (east) branch with ‘Stay Connected’ form which ICICI bank endeavors to ‘make customer’s banking experience safe and secure by providing important account related information like transaction alerts, updates and exciting offers.’
A customer needs to fill his/her contact address, mobile number, e-mail ID and PAN number to link relationship with the ICICI bank. “The victim could not get any transaction alert through SMS on his cellphone as the fraudsters first managed to change victim’s registered mobile number by making a bogus PAN card by fixing his own photograph to procure duplicate debit card from Nalasopara branch of the bank before doing online shopping,” the officer added.
“The preliminary enquiry revealed that bank staff Ranje helped Khan to submit the ‘Stay Connected’ form at Malad branch of the bank and here the victim’s registered mobile number was fraudulently changed,” said a senior officer. The fraudsters have done online shopping of jewellery and two cell phones each worth Rs. 7000. Victim’s debit card was also swiped to withdraw money from ATM. Besides all, money has been transferred to a bank account. “We have requested bank to give us full details of the NRI account,” the officer added.
The investigating team as well as cyber cell is gathering technical evidences to connect all the dots to nail the hackers. The FIR has been registered under sections 419, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471 and 34 of IPC and 66 (C), 66 (D) of IT Act.