Cosmos Bank’s Rs 94 crores online fraud – Pune police submits chargesheet

Pune: NP NEWS 24 ONLINE- The special investigation team (SIT) of Pune city police has submitted charge sheet against nine persons in connection with hacking of Cosmos Bank servers and withdrawal of Rs 94.42 crores in August. These accused had withdrawn cash from various ATMs. The masterminds are yet to be arrested.

Police have seized Rs 3.55 lakhs from their possession. These accused along with their accomplices had used 95 cloned debit cards to withdraw cash from ATMs in Kolhapur, police said.

In a major security breach at Cosmos Bank, unidentified persons hacked it’s server and transferred Rs 94.42 crores and withdrawn them. Bank officials said there was malware attack.

The Bank has lodged a complaint against unidentified persons and ALM Trading Limited, Hong Kong as Rs 13.92 crores was transferred to their account with Hong Kong Bank in Hong Kong.

According to police, the ATM switch (server) located at Cosmos Bank head office on Ganeshkhind road was hacked between 3 pm to 10 pm on August 11. The hackers had stolen information of Visa and RuPay debit cardholders. In 12,000 transactions of Visa card they transferred Rs 78 crores out of India. Similarly, in 2849 transactions of RuPay card holders, Rs 2.5 crores was transferred within India.

Again on August 13 around 11.30 am, Rs 13.92 crores were transferred to ALM Trading Limited account in Hong Kong bank through SWIFT transaction.

The hackers had withdrawn all money transferred from Cosmos Bank. Based on complaint from bank official Suhas Gokhale (53), an FIR has been registered with Chatushrungi police station against unidentified persons and ALM Trading for offences under sections 420 (cheating), 379 (theft), 120b (criminal conspiracy), 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of Information Technology (IT) Act.