Hyderabad: In a shocking incident, the ICICI Bank was cheated of Rs 3 crore after a 10-member gang allegedly withdrew the money with cloned cards.
The gang members hailing from Jharkhand and West Bengal verified card numbers through e-wallets and booking application and validated PIN numbers through Interactive Voice Response of more than 3,500 bank customers.
They later used these cards to withdraw money from ATMs located across the country, such as, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Kerala.
Speaking to reporters, Cyberabad Police Commissioner V C Sajjanar termed this case as one of the biggest cyber crimes to happen in recent times. “This shows a paradigm shift in the cyber criminals fraudulent methods in doing frauds targeting banks itself instead of individual customers,” he said.
The police took up the case after a complaint was lodged by Regional Manager, ICICI Bank, Hyderabad on 26 March. The complaint said, 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.
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, said the complaint.
The ICICI Bank issued a statement, that the bank has proactively informed the police about the matter and has been supporting them to book the fraudsters and that there has been no financial loss to their customers as the bank was refunding money to customers who were affected in the incident.