NEW DELHI: They used to work for a bank, but on losing their jobs the two walked away with a database of about 5,000 bank clients and soon siphoned off crores of rupees through an elaborate credit card and e-commerce fraud. But now, Sagir (31) and Govind Ram (33) are cooling their heels in custody.
Officers in Delhi Police's Crime Branch, who cracked the case, say the two targeted more than 100 bank clients. Additional commissioner of police (crime) Ashok Chand told TOI that they had been tracking the movements of the two men and finally caught them on Tuesday after being tipped off that they would be travelling in a Santro car in north Delhi.
"A team led by DCP Bhisham Singh and ACP K P S Malhotra laid a trap and nabbed the two. They were identified as Sagir (31) from the Bara Hindu Rao area and Govind Ram (33) from Karol Bagh. A laptop, data cards, a USB drive, five mobile phones, several national and international SIM cards, a scanner, printouts of the customer database, and application forms for new credit cards were seized," Chand said.
During interrogation, the two revealed that they lured clients into signing up for new credit cards with attractive offers. They first posed as the bank's tele-callers and fixed appointments with the clients. On meeting the clients, they asked them to show their existing credit cards and took down the card numbers and the CVV numbers printed on the back of the cards.
They also noted the clients' e-mail addresses and phone numbers along with details like date of birth while getting the application form for a new credit card filled.
Armed with all details, the duo would call a client's cell phone operator and report the loss of their phone to block the phone number registered with the bank. "After this, they would call the bank's customer care and change the target's mobile number with one of their own. They would also change the target's email ID. The victim would not get any alerts about the changes as their phone SIM had been blocked," said DCP (crime) Bhisham Singh.
With the contact details changed, the crooks could get the one-time passwords required for transactions on the email IDs and phone numbers they had set up.
Sagir and Ram transferred money from their victims' credit card to online e-commerce accounts like Airtel Money, Vodafone Mpesa, and PayU, and then moved the funds into various bank accounts opened by them through forged documents. The money was later withdrawn through ATMs.
