Hyderabad: Crooks play dead techies, dupe banks

HYDERABAD: The Cyberabad police has busted a gang of six that collected lakhs by impersonating young IT professionals from Hyderabad who died in accidents. The fraudsters managed to pocket 53,95,043 by duping HDFC Bank, ICICI, SBI, RBL, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Bajaj Finserve.
The gang took instant loans and credit cards in the name of four dead techies, including Abhishek Anand who died on November 24 last year after being hit by a BMW car driven by a drunk man in Madhapur. The fraud came to light only after the family of one of the victims was approached by bank officials to clear credit card dues 2.76 lakh.
The accused, all between 25 and 35 years of age, surfed the internet and collected information on the techies by reading media reports. They also found their home address and the company they worked for.
"For three of the deceased techies, they searched social media accounts and got their mobile numbers and email IDs. For Abhishek Anand, they called his former office pretending to be from a courier service and got his personal information. They then applied for SIM cards for the phone numbers of the victims," said ACP cybercrime, Y Srinivas Kumar.Using fake ID proofs, they visited the banks and managed to get the customer ID and bank account number of the dead men.
Fraudsters got bank details of dead persons
Using fake ID proofs, they visited banks and managed to get customer ID and bank account number of dead men. They claimed they need details to deposit money in accounts. The accused then logged into net banking account by clicking on ‘Forgot password’ option. “The fraudsters then raised requests for instant pre-approved loans and credit cards. They transferred loan amount and balance from deceased’s accounts to fake bank accounts and withdrew the money,” said Cyberabad police chief VC Sajjanar.
When they failed to crack email ID, they requested banks to change the registered mail ID and used changed ID to login to net banking. They also requested for new debit cards and credit cards for existing accounts of deceased persons and collect them at courier office by submitting fake ID proofs.