3 Nigerians among 6 held for siphoning off Rs 42-L from firm

The cyber cell of Madhya Pradesh police have arrested six persons, including three Nigerians, for allegedly siphoning off Rs 42 lakh from the bank account of a state-based firm last month, a senior officer said.
With their arrest yesterday, the police claimed to have busted an international gang involved in these crimes.
"We arrested six persons yesterday in connection with the illegal transfer of Rs 42 lakh by hacking the bank account of Prompt Engineers, a firm based in Mandideep (in Raisen district). While three Nigerian nationals were arrested from Noida, the remaining ones were held from Bhopal," Cyber cell's Superintendent of Police (SP), Shailendra Singh Chouhan, said.

The Nigerians were identified as Ibezim Peter Chiknso (22), David Olutayo Frederick (29) Everest Chinedu Oparaeke (27). They had been residing in Noida even after the expiry of their visa, he added.
The other accused were identified as Anil Pandey (40), Ram Singh (27) and Shivendra Sikarwar (25).
He said that two other accused Rajendra Satnami and John Browni are absconding.

Chouhan said that the Nigerian nationals were the masterminds of this crime, while the locals provided them information and support.
"The owner of Prompt Engineers, Anand Jain, had complained that Rs 42 lakh were withdrawn from the bank account of his firm through real time gross settlement (RTGS) on September 16," he said.

While disclosing the modus operandi of these fraudsters, Chouhan said that investigations revealed that the accused blocked Jain's mobile number, registered for the net banking, a day before the transferring the money through RTGS.
"The fraudsters blocked Jain's mobile number that was registered with his bank account, a day before the RTGS transfer. They obtained duplicate SIM of the same number by furnishing fake documents," he said.
By using this number, the fraudsters obtained OTP (one time password) and transferred the money through RTGS, in different bank accounts in Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, the officer said.

After conducting investigations in different cities of these states and going through the CCTV footage, the team identified these fraudsters and arrested them, he said.
Further investigation is on.