MP: 3 bank relationship managers held for buying gadgets and gold through account fraud

Indore, Jan 8 (PTI) Three managers of a private bank and three other persons were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly hacking 12 current accounts of customers from four states and purchasing digital gold and mobile phones, Indore Police said.

Police recovered goods worth Rs 20 lakh, including gaming stations, watches, and mobile phones from the accused.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Abhinay Vishwakarma told reporters that the arrested relationship managers of ICICI Bank are identified as Kamal Kumawat, Abhishek Malviya, and Stanley Jacob, and their associates as Luvdeep Singh, Krishna Thakur, and Arunu.

The police officer said the three relationship managers misused bank software to hack into the current accounts of at least 12 customers from Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, and Telangana.

"They misused the software to identify those current accounts awash with funds. They changed the passwords of these accounts by looking at their user IDs and bought expensive mobile phones, watches and gadgets by logging into these accounts," the police officer said.

Vishwakarma said that after hacking into these accounts, the accused also bought gift cards and digital gold, and sent the money received from selling them to their personal accounts.

Digital gold is a way to invest in gold online without physically owning it.

Vishwakarma further said that the accused are suspected to have cheated bank customers of crores of rupees.

"The amount of about Rs 52 lakh has been refunded to the bank customers who were targeted. Additionally, transactions from the bank accounts of the accused have been frozen," he said.

The recovered goods include expensive mobile phones, watches, and gaming playstations.

The police officer said that the accused fraudulently purchased SIM cards from Telangana. They sent back these SIM cards after committing the crime and destroyed them. PTI HWP ADU NSK