Nigerian duo hacks Manjeri Co-operative Bank's server, steal Rs 70 lakhs; arrested

Police arrested two Nigerians from New Delhi for hacking the server of Manjeri Co-operative Bank and extorting Rs 70 lakhs through online fraud.

Malappuram (Kerala): Two Nigerians have been arrested from New Delhi for hacking the server of Manjeri Co-operative Bank in Malappuram Kerala and stealing Rs 70 lakhs through online fraud. The arrested were identified as Immaculate Chinnus and Inna Cosmos. A team led by Cyber Crime Police SHO MJ Arun stayed in Delhi for 15 days and conducted investigations to arrest the accused.

A fraud was conducted by hacking mobile banking server. By changing the mobile numbers given by the customers in their accounts, they organized fake SIM cards and set the OTP to those numbers and increased the daily transaction limit of the customers who did not have mobile banking, and swindled about 70 lakh rupees from the accounts of four customers.

After noticing the fraud, bank manager Abdul Naser registered a case at the Malappuram Cyber ​​​​Crime Police Station and an investigation was started on the basis of the complaint lodged by the bank manager with the district police chief. Malappuram DySP Abdul Basheer formed a special investigation team with Cybercrime Police Station SHO and District Anti-Narcotic Special Action Force (DANSAF).

The accused transferred the stolen money to 19 banks. The investigation revealed that the fraudsters opened the accounts by giving fake addresses in Bihar, Mizoram, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh and withdrew cash from Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Kolkata through ATMs. The accused admitted that they transferred most of the money stolen from the bank to Nigeria and paid commissions to the bankers who acted as middlemen.

The police are also investigating whether the private companies managing the bank server and mobile banking server have connections to the incident of hacking the bank's server and taking the customer's information.