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Mumbai: Cyber crime police have arrested three men, including a BTech (IT) graduate from Ghaziabad, for their alleged involvement in an online transaction failure fraud causing a loss of nearly Rs 4.5 crore to a private bank. The trio were beneficiaries, police said, adding that they are looking for the mastermind – a hacker suspected to be from Turkey.

Explaining the modus operandi, police said the hacker posed as an international merchant and requested the bank to refund failed transactions on behalf of credit card holders. As he also submitted counterfeit purchase reversal documents to support the fraudulent claims, the bank transferred nearly Rs 4.5 crore to 34 credit card holders between June and Dec 2023. When the bank found that the credit amount was not settled, its vice-president filed a police complaint in Jan, and an FIR was registered for cheating and impersonation.

The complainant told police that the ‘international merchants’ contacted them, claiming that several of their clients’ transactions had failed. The ‘merchants’ asked the bank to refund the amount to some of the customers’ credit cards and gave an assurance that they would later pay the bank. “This is a normal process. So, the bank refunded the amount in the credit cards of 34 people whose information was provided by the merchants. However, when the bank did not get its credit amount for a long time, it contacted the merchants, but in vain. Later, an FIR was filed,” said a police officer.

While analysing the money trail, police found that the bank had given Rs 76 lakh as credit money to Andheri resident Muzammil Warsi (34), who owns a film editing firm. “The bank had refunded the credit amount to 34 credit card holders and Warsi was one of them,” said the officer, adding that Warsi sent Rs 45 lakh to Ramkumar Yadav (29), a BTech (IT) graduate who runs an electronic accessories store in Ghaziabad. Police said Yadav kept his commission, and converted the remaining money into crypto currency and sent it to the hacker.

Police further said Arbaz Raula (24), a share trader from Mumbra, received nearly Rs 1.8 lakh in his credit card. “He kept 20% as commission and sent the remaining amount to another person whom he met on Telegram,” said the officer. All three were arrested last week following a probe supervised by joint commissioner of police Lakhmi Gautam and DCP Datta Nalawade, and conducted by a team comprising senior police inspector Datta Chavan, inspector Savita Shinde, sub-inspectors Rahul Khetre and Deepak Tayde, and personnel Deepak Padalkar, Akash Rade and Vishnu Kale.

  • Published On Apr 4, 2024 at 01:50 PM IST

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