Terror links to Axis Bank fraud?

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The Kochi City police, which has met with some success in cracking the Axis Bank online money scam with the recent arrest of two men from Hyderabad, suspects the racket may have been used to fund terror operations or some such dangerous activity and may soon request the state government to transfer the case to a Central investigating agency considering its seriousness.

The two men, Mirza Jaffer Baig alias Hameed (28) of Agapura Nampally and Sheikh Rehan Ali alias Etisham (34) of Chanchalguda Bazaar, were arrested on Tuesday for their alleged role in the scam reported from several countries in Asia, by a squad led by Kochi central police circle inspector, Suneesh Babu .

On March 30, Dr R. Shabbir Khan of Lakeshore hospital lost nearly Rs 11.14 lakh from his Axis bank account with a three-layer password system, which he thought safe and secure.

The money was withdrawn from 90 ATMs in nine states through three different banks and transferred to 22 different bank accounts.

Felix Ivdubuisi Egedigave alias David, a Nigerian in Kolkata jail since February this year is believed to be the kingpin of the racket. He was arrested from Pondicherry for committing a similar fraud in Hyderabad a year ago.

The police suspect Felix may have operated from the jail, as his phone was used by the arrested men to siphon off Dr Khan’s money.

The Kerala police plans to go to Kolkata soon to seek his custody to help with its investigation.
A friend of the Nigerian is believed to be the hacker who helps siphon off people’s money deposited in banks.

“Depositors from India and other Asian countries have lost money this way over the past couple of years. The destination of this money is a matter of concern. We think the money has gone to terror outfits,” said inspector general, central zone, K. Padmakumar.

The gang, which is believed to be spread across nine different states in India, is suspected to have inside help in banks and also the support of mobile operators.

“It is impossible to mastermind such an operation without such help, ” Mr Padmakumar added.

The police, which has formed eight other squads from Kochi to investigate the case, is now on the lookout for two other suspects, Mohammed Ali of Chanchalguda and Atta Ur Rahman Mohammed of Al Hasanath colony in Hyderabad.

Con game that trapped Dr Shabbir Khan

Financial criminals are getting more sophisticated in the means they employ to siphon off money from people’s accounts.

Dr R. Shabbir Khan of Lakeshore Hospital found that Rs 11.14 lakh was siphoned off from his Axis Bank account on March 30.

The money was transferred to 18 Axis bank accounts, three ICICI accounts and one Kotak Mahindra account on the same day, and then withdrawn from 90 ATMs in nine states the next day.

Several similar cases were registered across the country at different times, all linking to the same racket, the police said.

According to the police, the racketeers operate just like a company, with staff agents and field executives, to cheat targets like Dr Khan.

Two men, Hameed and Ali, have been arrested in Dr Khan’s case, who are believed to be “field executives” whose duty was to trace the personal background, passport, and bank details of targets.

Hameed, who has an MBA, was the executive who traced Dr Khan’s details and later forged his passport to get a duplicate mobile sim card from a Vodafone office at Panjagutta in Hyderabad on March 22, with the help of a staffer.

On March 30, he went to the same shop and blocked the card, saying he had lost it. Then he took a triplicate sim card, which was used to retrieve the bank password of Dr Khan.

Meanwhile, in Kerala, Dr Khan was wondering why his sim card was blocked. The mistake he made was to wait for two days before approaching his mobile operator.

Not that it would have helped much. For, on March 30 itself, Hameed and Ali transferred Dr Khan's money to the 22 bank accounts across the nation.