KOCHI: Kochi cybercrime sleuths have launched an inquiry to track down the person who designed the phishing website with which two young techies from West Bengal siphoned off Rs 2.57 lakh from the bank account of an ex-serviceman in Alappuzha.
Earlier, the police arrested Amitabha Mallik, 30, and his younger brother Arunava Mallik, 19, from Haldia in West Bengal on August 21. They were brought to Kochi on Tuesday. While Amitabha is a BTech graduate in computer science, his younger brother is doing a diploma in the same subject. The fraud came to light when Praveen of Panavally in Alapuzha lodged a complaint with the local police.
According to the complaint, Praveen received an alert on his mobile phone from SBI, where he has his account, informing him that Rs 2.57 lakh had been debited from his account on August 11, 2018. The transaction was done with a One Time Password (OTP) which he had not received. Following this, he approached the bank authorities who in turn directed him to Poochakkal police station in Alappuzha. The Cyber Crime police station, which received the case months later, found it to be a case of phishing.
Praveen had searched the internet for recharge options for his mobile phone. He was directed to a phishing site the accused had developed with the help of their friend. He entered his internet banking ID, password and OTP on this fake site believing that it was the bank payment gateway.
The accused used these details to install a secure OTP app on their Android phone and then hijacked the victim’s internet banking facility. Then they carried out transactions without OTP. The accused siphoned off H2.57 lakh in 10 different transactions from the complainant’s bank account.