Hyderabad police arrests Nigerian national in Mahesh Bank e-fraud case

With the arrest of a Nigerian national, Hyderabad Police has busted the Mahesh Bank hacking case involving the hacking of bank servers and illegal transfer of money to the tune of Rs 12 crore.

Hyderabad Police has cracked the Mahesh Bank hacking case involving the hacking of bank servers and illegal transfer of money to the tune of Rs 12 crore, said Police Commissioner CV Anand while addressing the media on Wednesday.

A foreign-based hacker allegedly entered into the AP Mahesh Cooperative Urban Bank system and illegally transferred over Rs 12 crore to different accounts.

Cyber forensics revealed that the hackers entered the system of the AP Mahesh Co-operative Urban Bank through phishing mails containing a remote access trojan (RAT) sent to the 200 employees of the bank on November 4, 10 and 16 last year.

It was when two of the employees clicked the mail and the RAT got embedded in the bank's computer, following which the hacker got access to the computers of the bank and, since all the systems in the bank are interconnected, the hackers were remotely able to access the Core banking server of the bank.‘’ said Hyderabad police chief.

Earlier this year, on January 24, the bank approached the Hyderabad Police complaining about the hacking and swindling of Rs 12.48 crore. Based on the complaint, a case was registered under relevant sections and an investigation was taken up.

A 100 member team of police officers was sent across the country to nab the gang.

‘’We spent over 58 lakh investigating the case for two months and to nab the gang involved in the hacking of several banks in the country. Transactions were made through internet banking and the amount was transferred into 115 different bank accounts, further into 398 different bank accounts. Most of the beneficiary accounts are in Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and 7 north-eastern states.