One mastermind of Cosmos Bank heist identified by SIT

One mastermind of Cosmos Bank heist identified by SIT

Pune: The special investigation team (SIT) of the Pune city police, which filed a 1,750-page charge sheet against the nine arrested accused in the Cosmos Bank’s server hacking and siphoning off Rs 94.45 crore case earlier this month, has identified one of the masterminds who handled the arrested accused. 

Officials privy to the investigation said there is a Bollywood connection to the scam as historysheeters were used to executing the last stage of withdrawing money on commission basis. “This mastermind has fled the country and is suspected to be holed up in a Gulf country. Our investigation has revealed there are multiple layers of the scam. The stolen data from the ATM cards was sold on Darknet. Another gang purchased the data, made cloned cards and then with the help of organised crime syndicate, cash was withdrawn,” said an officer on  condition of anonymity.

According to the police, the hackers used malware to hack the bank’s system and clone ATM card details of customers. On August 11, the hackers conducted over 12,000 transactions and transferred Rs 78 crore out of India. In the second instance, total 2,849 transactions were conducted in which Rs 2.5 crore was transferred within India. On August 13, hackers again transferred Rs 13.92 crore to a Hong Kong-based bank by using fraudulent swift transactions.

The police said that while cloning the Visa and Rupay debit cards of bank account holders and using a ‘parallel’ system to the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI), the hackers self-approved the transactions and withdrew over Rs 94 crore on two-three occasions. Visa and Rupay appraised the bank and about these fraudulent transactions to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Realising it was a cyber attack, bank officials registered an FIR with the Chatuhshrungi police station.

The arrested accused persons were told in advance about the date and time when they had to withdraw the money. Between 3 pm and 10 pm on August 11, the accused persons withdrew Rs 89.57 lakh using 101 cards from ATMs in Kolhapur. In Ajmer, Rajasthan, two accused withdrew Rs 10.7 lakh using 16 cloned ATM cards. The police have recovered Rs six lakh from the accused persons.
 
Charge sheet against following accused
The police have filed a charge sheet against Fahim Mehfuj Sheikh (27) of Bhiwandi, Fahim Azim Khan (30), Sheikh Mohammed Abdul Jabbar (28), both residents of Aurangabad, Mahesh Sahebrao Rathod (22) of Nanded, Naresh Laxminarayan Maharana (34) of Palghar, Mohammad Saeed Iqbal Hussain Jafari alias Ali (30) of Bhiwandi, Yestes Agustin Waz alias Anthony (41) of Mumbai, Rafiq Jalil Ansari (38) and Abdulla Afsarali Shaikh (28) of Thane.

Money  recovery is difficult
Apart from India, an amount of Rs 78 crore was withdrawn from ATMs in 28 countries using over 5,000 ATM cards. The Pune police have written to the police in those countries through Interpol but there has been no headway in the recovery of the amount. “We have got replies from them and many of them have said there were no CCTVs at the ATMs in their countries,” the officer added. 

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