A gang of three duping HSBC Bank having accessed confidential details of its credit cardholders through an associate working with the bank’s call centre was busted by the police on Tuesday.
Scores of debit and credit cards, fictitious voter ID cards, PAN cards and fake documents were seized from the arrested, Commissioner’s Task Force Additional DCP B. Limba Reddy said.
Among the arrested was Anshul Thapar of Punjab, who was already facing a case of fraudulently withdrawing Rs. 38 lakh from different bank ATMs that was being investigated by the CBI’s Chennai wing.
Even as trial of the case was on, Thapar secured details of HSBC Bank credit cardholders through one of his aides working in the bank’s call centre. Using this information, the gang would place requests for change of the cardholders’ phone numbers and email IDs by calling the bank’s call centres.
“By changing details meant for communication, the gang was ensuring that the credit cardholders don’t get information about the fraudulent transactions being made with the cards,” Mr. Reddy said. They would then ask the bank to transfer the credit facility from the original cardholders’ accounts to the fictitious accounts created.
Later, Thapar would purchase gold or costly electronic goods with the credit facility. Using this modus operandi, Thapar duped the bank’s credit cardholders from Punjab, Karnataka, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu of Rs. 9 lakh.
The accused took the help of K. Goverdhan (26) of Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh, and Jai Narayan Sisodia (40) of Delhi, in executing this plot.
The trio took some other banks for a ride by securing credit cards presenting fabricated documents and purchasing gold using them. By replacing photographs with theirs on others’ voter ID cards or driving licences, they applied for PAN cards.
Using these, the gang opened accounts with different banks by depositing a few thousand rupees. After making some transactions, they applied for credit cards and purchased gold using them.
