‘Update your bank KYC’: How Delhi man conned people to steal savings; arrested

By posing as a bank employee, the accused used to get their account details and mobile number registered with the bank.

A Delhi-based loan agent was arrested on Monday for allegedly duping bank customers and extracting their account details by pretending to update their KYC (Know Your Customer).

According to the North Mumbai cyber cell of the Mumbai Police, the accused, identified as Vivek Sunil Sabarwal (38), was apprehended after over eight months of search. (REUTERS)

According to the North Mumbai cyber cell of the Mumbai Police, the accused, identified as Vivek Sunil Sabarwal (38), was apprehended after over eight months of search.

On July 16, 2021, they received a complaint from a Mumbai-based estate agent that an unidentified caller had posed as a bank employee and asked him to email him his bank details for KYC updation.

The complainant in his statement said he had a savings account in Corporation Bank at Malad. However, after the bank’s merger with Union Bank, his account was shifted to the latter.

On June 5, 2021, he got calls from an unidentified caller about updating his KYC with Union Bank. On July 16, 2021, he received an email to update his bank details and mobile number.

Assuming the email to be genuine, the complainant replied to the email with his account details. A few days later, he learnt that his account was debited of ₹12.73 lakh. The bank informed him that they received a request from the account holder to change the registered mobile number after which the money was withdrawn. He subsequently registered an FIR.

PI Savita Kadam, from the cyber cell, said that they began the investigation by tracking the mobile number registered with the bank. “We traced the mobile number to Burari in Delhi,” said Kadam.

When we found out the address of the SIM card owner, we kept a watch on the house and on Monday arrested Sabarwal.

On searching the flat, the police found five mobile phones, 10 debit cards, 14 fake Aadhaar cards and five fake driving licenses, 35 stamps of companies, 43 letterheads of multiple companies and data of more than 50,000 account holders from different banks.

On further investigation, the police learnt that Sabarwal used to call up account holders of banks which had gone through mergers. By posing as a bank employee, the accused used to get their account details and mobile number registered with the bank.

After securing the details, he then called up the bank pretending to be the account holder and put in a request to change the registered mobile number. After changing the mobile number, he used to withdraw money from the account.

“We are investigating the number of people he cheated and whether there are more people involved in the crime,” said Kadam.