CHENNAI: Four men, part of a multistate gang, were sent to judicial custody by a city court on Monday for swindling Rs 24 lakh from an eye hospital in Chennai using SIM swap technique. The gang, operating from towns along Bangladesh border, was arrested and brought to the city by the Cyber Crime Wing of the Central Crime Branch (CCB).
On November 22, Dr Raveendhran, managing trustee of the hospital located in Mylapore, filed a police complaint after Rs 24 lakh went missing from his bank account and the phone number linked to it became inactive.
The arrested were identified as A Sayantan Mukherjee (25) of Murshidabad, S Rahul Roy (24) of North Parganas, and A Rokan Alishana (27) of South Parganas in West Bengal, and B Rakesh Kumar Singh (33) of Bihar.
According to police, the gang hacked into the hospital’s email ID and collected details of bank account and ATM cards. It then deactivated the SIM of the phone number linked to the account by using the email ID. “The fraudsters deactivated the SIM card on Friday. They obtained a new SIM card from the telecom company outlet, which functions even on weekends, by posing as representatives of the hospital,” inspector T Vinoth Kumar said. The fraudsters then used the SIM card to transfer money from hospital’s account. The money was then deposited in 16 bank accounts across West Bengal.
A special team headed by inspector T Vinoth Kumar traced the gang that was operating in and around Behala, Halisahar, Palla Bazar along Bangladesh border. Behela police helped the team arrest the suspects. Inquiries revealed that they all worked for Sathish Yadav alias Rajeev of Uttar Pradesh.
“While Sathish Yadav is suspected to be behind the hacking of the email and obtaining duplicate SIM card, the job of the arrested was to withdraw cash transferred by Sathish Yadav from different ATMs,” Vinoth Kumar said. Fourteen mobile phones, 105 SIM cards, 154 debit cards, 22 fake PAN cards, 128 fake Aadhaar cards were seized from them.
How they did it
Gang hacks into the hospital’s email ID and collects details of bank account and ATM cards
It deactivates the SIM of the phone number linked to the account by using the email ID
They obtained a new SIM card and used it to transfer money from hospital’s account