OSBC Osun State Broadcasting Corporation
The Cyber Crime Wing of Greater Chennai Police in India has arrested two Nigerians for virtually robbing Rs 2.5 crore from a branch of the Tamil Nadu State Apex Cooperative Bank.
The suspects identified as 40-year-old Augustine, a software engineer and Ekene Godwin, 37, were arrested from Uttam Nagar, Delhi when one of them went to an ATM to withdraw money, police said in a statement on Friday, January 13, 2023.
The arrest was made on January 8, by a special team led by inspector T Vinoth Kumar of the cybercrime wing and would be brought to Chennai soon.
The duo entered India two years ago on a business visa. Since August 2022, they have been sending phishing emails to cooperative banks across the country and allegedly managed to steal from 10 different banks.
According to Times of India, the duo gained access to the keyboard usage of the bank and monitored the texts and swindled ?2.5 crore.
While the cybercrime personnel managed to retrieve Rs 1.5 crore immediately after the successful phishing bid, the accused had managed to transfer the remaining sum.
The police said last November, a representative from the bank lodged a complaint alleging that some people had stolen ?2.61 crore from its account and security protocols had been compromised. The officers of Cyber Crime Wing registered a case and took up investigation.
Explaining the duo’s modus operandi, police said that Augustine sent a phishing mail to the bank officials on November 18.
“As the name suggests, Keylogger is used to gain access to a keyboard. When a bank staff clicked on the phishing e-mail, the embedded software got installed. The duo monitored the system for four months before transferring the money,” the officer said.
Soon after they clicked on the link, the Key Logger app, which was embedded within the mail, got downloaded into their computers. The tool entered the banking system without alerting the officials.
