An analysis on the biggest cyber fraud in Barak Valley's history; "Matter under investigation," SP Cachar

PhotoBarak Valley has witnessed one of the biggest and the most bizarre cyber crimes in its history. Yesterday, 65-year-old retired State Bank of India employee, Debashish Aditya got to know that Rs 15,79,001 which is a significant part of his life-long service is gone. It all started on May 26, when he got a call from someone who introduced himself to be a BSNL customer care executive.

Debashish Aditya was facing trouble in paying his BSNL bill for a couple of days. On the third day when he got the call, he thought it is a legitimate attempt to solve his problems and therefore carried out the conversation. A link was sent to him and he was asked to carry out a transaction of Rs 11. bsnl.rechargecube…in/….. was the link sent from 6289007087 and since it starts with BSNL, Aditya said he thought it is legit.

Barak Bulletin spoke with a couple of cyber experts based out of Pune to re-create the chain of events. The link that was sent to Debashish Aditya was programmed in a manner that the moment he clicked on it, the miscreants on the other side got access to his mobile’s real estate. If Aditya was using Google Chrome or Firefox browsers, he must have got a prompt with two options either to allow or deny. Experts say Aditya must have clicked allow and in all probability that is how the miscreants got access to his mobile phone. Now, sitting remotely the miscreants were able to see everything on his phone. Aditya, while doing the Rs 11 transaction, typed his Internet Banking id, password- the only details the miscreants needed. After accessing the net banking account, the miscreants changed the mobile number in the INB and so, Aditya did not get any message and Rs 3.14 lakh was transferred fraudulently from his account.

He is partially paralysed yet rushed to the bank in the evening of May 26 to complain about the same. He is a retired officer of the same bank and so he is duly respected in the fraternity. They help him out by putting all the accounts on hold even without a formal copy of the complaint or FIR. He does file an FIR on the same day and lodges a complaint with the bank. The incident was reported in the media and well known in the banking fraternity. In his complaint, he urges the bank to “take necessary steps” in order to ensure that he gets the money back.

Despite all of that, on May 29, 2021, his wife who is a fellow banker at SBI, out of curiosity logs into her husband’s account from the backend to check what is happening with it. She realises that the miscreant has created three overdraft accounts and transfered Rs 15,79,001. These accounts were created using Internet Banking. Whenever a Fixed Deposit is done over the counter, customers cannot withdraw it using net banking, but, loans can be taken keeping those FDs as collateral using net banking and the loan amount is then credited to an overdraft account. Due to the complaints on May 26, Debashish Aditya’s savings accounts were kept on hold, but there was no hold on the FDs and so the miscreant easily transferred the money to various beneficiaries across the country from the overdraft account.

The question, therefore, is, despite the complaint and the FIR, why was net banking not disabled. Officers in SBI on condition of anonymity said that it was not mentioned in the complaint submitted by Debashish Aditya. He did mention, “requesting you to take necessary steps.” Shashwata Badshah, president of the retired officers association, (Silchar) finds it bizarre. “The association will call for a meeting and take a decision. However, the SBI Main Branch must take the responsibility as it was their duty to block the net banking immediately after they got to know about the fraudulent transactions,” he said.

Adding, “It is in the RBI’s rules and regulations that in the case of fraudulent transactions, within three days, if the customer informs the bank about the transaction with the necessary evidence, the bank is liable to return the money to the customer. Yes, there will be an internal investigation conducted by the bank and there will be a Police inquiry report too, but the onus is with the bank and from the association, we will put pressure on the main branch to take prompt action as per provisions.”

While there is no doubt that the bank and the bankers have made a blunder, more so when both parties are related to the same bank, what remains uncertain is the action taken by the Police after the first FIR. Three days after the FIR was lodged, the miscreants continue to loot the account. “There is a rapid rise of cyber-crime in Barak Valley and the Police needs to be more vigilant,” says Subimal Bhattacharjee a member of the editorial board of Chatham House, also known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs. He is also the former country manager of General Dynamics.

“The money was fraudulently transacted using net banking and therefore, it is obvious that the net banking must be disabled. On December 14, 2017, Reserve Bank has issued a circular stating that the customer should get the money back if he has prompted the bank within 72 hours. In this case, all necessary intimations were given within 72 hours,” Bhattacharjee echoes Badshah.

The victims met Vaibhav Nimbalkar, SP. Cachar Police and discussed the matter with him. “We will carry out an investigation to ensure the culprits are brought to book immediately,” said Cachar SP while speaking with Barak Bulletin. “I have also asked them to take the matter with the bank,” he added.

When asked how could the miscreant carry transactions despite lodging a complaint with the Police station as well as the bank, “We will verify all the transactions carried out and check which were fraudulent,” SP concluded.