Five held from Assam for cheating bank of Rs 1.26 crore in Mumbai

Police have nabbed five members of a cybercriminal gang from Assam for cheating a foreign bank of Rs 1.26 crore in Mumbai by using credit cards obtained through forged documents and accessing data of customers having good CIBIL scores, officials said on Thursday.

The Mumbai Police's crime branch arrested the accused from five villages in Morigaon district of the north-eastern state after conducting an operation with help from their local counterparts, an official said.

The accused were identified by police as Mohebur Aslam Rehman (28), a resident of Amraguri; Azarul Islam (27), a native of Lali Patthar; Iliyas Islam (25), a resident of Hatyara Bori; Aub Bakar Siddique Ramzan Ali (37), a resident of Tatipora; and Moinuddin Ahmed (26), a resident of Karimari.
These villages are known as hubs of cybercriminals like Jharkhand's Jamtara district, which is widely associated with online financial frauds, said the official.

A vice-president of HSBC Bank last year had approached the Mumbai police with a complaint after the foreign lender found some unidentified persons had prepared 55 credit cards by using fabricated documents and data of genuine bank customers, who had good CIBIL scores.

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A higher CIBIL (Credit Information Bureau India Ltd) score makes it easier for a borrower to secure loans and credit cards on favourable terms.

The fraudsters used the credit cards for online shopping and also diverted money to various bank accounts, he said, adding the loss was pegged at Rs 1.26 crore.

Based on the complaint, a case was registered at the Azad Maidan Police Station in south Mumbai and the probe was handed over to Unit 3 of the crime branch.

During the investigation, police identified some dubious online transactions, places where credit cards were used and mobile phones involved in committing the crime. The trails of the crime led police to Morigaon district of Assam, he said.

After collecting evidence about the organized gang involved in the crime, a Mumbai police team went to Assam and apprehended all five accused, the official informed.

The accused persons are being brought to Mumbai, where they will be produced in a court, he said.