HYDERABAD: Cyber fraudsters who hacked into the server of Andhra Pradesh Mahesh Co-Operative Urban Bank Limited and took control of three accounts raised the original balance in them to crores, police have found. The cyber crooks had transferred Rs 12.9 crore to 128 bank accounts across the country between Saturday night and Monday morning.
The fraudsters also changed the mobile numbers linked to the three bank accounts to ensure that the original account holder did not receive SMS alerts.
Two accounts are current accounts in the name of private firms and the third a savings account in the name of a woman.
The bank account of the woman had only about Rs 300 which was raised to Rs 4.6 crore.
Similarly, the other two accounts, had an original balance of about Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 17,000 which the fraudsters raised to over Rs 4 crore in both, said a CCS official.
After changing the balance in the three accounts, the cyber fraudsters while transferring Rs 12.9 crore ensured that each transaction was not more than Rs 2 lakh to avoid raising automatic alerts in banking system.
Police said that bank officials and the three account holders have claimed ignorance about the entire fraud.
Investigation revealed that the recipient bank accounts are in various states including Delhi, Mumbai, Bihar, Kerala and North-East.
“Amount was transferred to several other accounts and ATM cash withdrawals made in various states. So far we have managed to write to various banks and freeze close to Rs 3 crore in various bank accounts,” CCS DCP Gajarao Bhupal said.
