Cyber crimes by call centre staff go up

Number of cases in which employees of call centres attached to banks siphoning off funds of customers is increasing, according to the crime investigation department of the cyber crime police station here.

The latest incident was that of Durga Charan Gehlot of Adilabad who was working as an ICICI call centre executive at Madhapur. “He managed to transfer cash from the account of a customer, Mr N. Anjaiah, using his personal details. Mr Anjaiah had Rs 2 crore in his account then,” the inspector, Mr B. Ravi Kumar Reddy, said.

Along with his friend, K. Raja Siva Kumar, Gehlot forged documents like identity and address proofs and opened an account in Axis Bank at Tarnaka in Mr Anjaiah’s name. He then opened another account in Axis Bank, Dilsukhnagar, in a false name by forging documents again.

The accused also opened a trading account in India Bulls in Mr Anjaiah’s name and linked it to Mr Anjaiah’s account in Axis Bank at Tarnaka. “Gehlot passed on Mr Anjaiah’s personal details to Raja Siva Kumar. The latter called up the call centre of ICICI bank posing as Mr Anjaiah and procured a debit card and the PIN number of Mr Anjaiah’s account.

He also procured the Internet password using which he transferred Mr Anjaiah’s money from ICICI bank to the false account at India Bulls Trading. From there they transferred it to Axis Bank.

They withdraw the amounts through cheques and ATMs. The amount was then deposited in the account at Axis Bank’s Dilsukhnagar branch.

The police said both the offenders were arrested.

“Banks and customers must take precautions — especially banks when they process documents,” said Mr Ravi Kumar Reddy.