'Accused in Cosmos case also involved in cyber fraud at City

Four of the seven persons arrested in the Cosmos Bank cyber fraud were also allegedly involved in the online heist at Chennai-based City Union Bank last year, Pune police claimed Tuesday.

The cyber cell of Pune police has arrested seven persons who allegedly withdrew money from ATMs using cloned cards after hackers stole information from the servers of the city-headquartered Cosmos Cooperative Bank last month.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (cyber and economic offences wing) Jyotipriya Singh said the fraud at City Union Bank took place in December 2017, where hackers syphoned off money using cloned cards and interbank SWIFT transactions.

"Two cases are registered in Chennai. One is for international transactions and another for domestic ones. After we made arrests in the Cosmos case, Chennai police shared CCTV footage of some ATMs in that case," the DCP said.

"We found that four of the seven accused are seen in some of the ATM footage from Chennai," she said.

Shaikh Mohammad Abdul Jabbar, Fahim Azim Khan, Yustace Augustine Vaz alias Anthonyand Naresh Maharana, arrested in the Cosmos case, confessed to involvement in the Chennai case too, the officer claimed.

"Currently they are in our custody. Chennai police will take their custody later," Singh added.

In Cosmos case, Rs 2.48 lakh have been recovered from the arrested accused, she said.

On August 11 and 13, unidentified hackers stole information of Cosmos Bank's VISA and Rupay card customers, attacked SWIFT system and syphoned off a total of Rs 94 crore through ATMs in 28 countries.