Members of Inter-State Gang Held for Cheating ICICI Bank, Withdrawing Over Rs 3 Crore With Cloned Cards

Hyderabad: In one of the biggest cybercrimes= in recent times, ten members of an inter-state gang were arrested for allegedly cheating ICICI Bank and withdrawing over Rs 3 crore with cloned cards, police said Wednesday.

The fraudsters from Jharkhand and West Bengal verified card numbers through e-wallets and booking application and validated PIN number of more than 3,500 bank customers through Interactive Voice Response, they said.

They withdrew the amounts from ATMs located in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.

"It is one of the biggest cyber crimes which has happened in recent times and this shows a paradigm shift in the cyber criminals fraudulent methods in doing frauds targeting banks itself instead of individual customers," Cyberabad Police Commissioner V C Sajjanar said.

A complaint was lodged on March 26 by Regional Manager, (Financial Crime Prevention Group), ICICI Bank, Hyderabad.

During March, the bank's toll-free customer care call centre at Hyderabad had received more than three lakh calls on IVR platform from various un-registered mobile numbers of bank accounts with a very specific request of balance enquiry by Debit card number and ATM Personal Identification Number, according to the complaint.

Of the validated cards of more than 3,500, withdrawals took place with more than 1,000 cards amounting to more than Rs 3 crore, it said.

These fraudsters modified their modus operandi to fetch huge amounts by playing fraud on banks instead of targeting individual bank customers, police said.

An ICICI Bank spokesperson in a statement said: "ICICI Bank has proactively informed the police about the matter and has been supporting them to book the fraudsters.

We would like to inform that there has been no financial loss to our customers. The Bank is refunding money to customers who are impacted by this incident."

As a precautionary measure, the bank said it has blocked cards of customers who may have been affected and have replaced their cards with new ones.