The Crime Branch CID police on Friday apprehended a suspect in Mumbai on charges of transferring Rs.2.11 lakh from the net banking account of an advocate based at Kadambur in Tuticorin district.
According to sources in the agency, the advocate, M. Bharathiselvi, responded to a phishing mail enabling the suspects to access her username and password.
After changing the password, the prime suspect D. Rajendra Kumar alias Rajan of Mumbai allegedly added four bank account numbers in the payee list for funds transfer.
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Since bank authorities had introduced a new security feature of sending Unique Reference Number (URN) to the registered mobile phone of customers whenever new payees were added, Rajan called the woman on her mobile and asked for the URN after claiming that he was calling from the bank's head office. Soon after she disclosed the number on December 12, 2009, the accused transferred the funds to four accounts. On receipt of SMS on her mobile, Bharathiselvi realised that she was cheated and lodged a complaint with the bank and, subsequently, the CBCID. Following a tip-off that the accounts to which the money was transferred were operated in Mumbai, a special team went there and detained Rajan.
He was produced before a Metropolitan Magistrate in Mumbai and brought to Chennai with a transit warrant. The team is on the look out for three others involved in the case, the sources added.