Global phishing racket busted, 3 held

The crime branch busted an international phishing racket on Tuesday and arrested three persons who were involved in duping as many as 23 bank customers of about Rs 35 lakh from all over the country. The gang comprised two Nigerian nationals who had been living in India without proper identification, visa or passport for last three years.

Two laptops, Rs 60,000 in cash, two forged and one expired passport, five mobile phones, 17 debit and credit cards in different names, 19 cheque books, 50 duplicate mobile phone bills, five SIM cards, seven forged driving licences, a PAN card, withdrawal slips and Western Union Money transfer receipts were confiscated from their possession on arrest.

The accused have been identified as Nur-ul-Huda Khan(26) from Manipur and the two Nigerian nationals, Ibimina Joshua alias Odi (38) staying in Munirka and Felix Awatefe (33) residing in Hauz Khas. They reportedly mainly targeted HDFC bank and ICICI bank customers.

The trio allegedly used to send out fake e-mails to bank customers on their e-mail IDs and ask for account details like net banking username and password on a downloadable link. The e-mails looked genuine and also bore the bank's logo which they copied from the official bank website.

"After the customer gave these details, they used to access their account and transfer all the money to a separate account from where money could be withdrawn and given to Khan. He then handed the money to the Nigerians who would send it to Nigeria through Western Union money transfer where they would divide their share," said DCP (crime and railways) Anil Shukla.

He added that the crime branch was informed of this scam by HDFC bank's Risk Control Unit manager who had received several complaints about large sums being withdrawn from their customers' accounts. They also received complaints from customers in Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai. The crime branch team checked the account opening information of beneficiaries who received the funds transfer and tracked down their IP addresses. They then realised that it was an international scam.

On further investigation, they found out Khan's whereabouts and laid a trap with the help of HDFC officials and nabbed him from his residence. Khan then led them to the two Nigerians who were arrested later in the day.