Mumbai criminal steals Rs13 lakh from 71-year-old NRI’s account, leaves him with Rs650

The fraudster mailed the SoBo branch of private bank from the complainant’s email to change ID and then withdrew money

A 71-year-old Non-Resident Indian (NRI) from the United States has registered a complaint with the MRA Marg police station alleging that an unknown person hacked into his email account and transferred Rs13lakh from his bank account using net banking.

On checking his account, the complainant found that it had only Rs 650 left in it. (HT File/Representational Image)

According to police, the complainant, who lives with his wife in the US, has a joint account with her in a private bank, the main branch of which, is in south Mumbai.

In his complaint to police, he stated that in the last week of January this year, when he was trying to withdraw money from his account he was informed there was insufficient amount.

On checking his balance online, he was shocked to see that his account only had Rs650 left instead of Rs13 lakh.

“The complainant enquired with the bank and was informed that Rs7 lakh, Rs5.50 lakh and Rs50,000 were transferred to another bank account from his account on January 21, January 23 and January 27 respectively using NEFT and RTGS,” said an officer from the MRA Marg police station.

Preliminary inquiry revealed that the bank had received emails from the complainant to change the email registered with the bank. Later, using the different email account id the fraudster managed to transfer funds by impersonating the complainant. The police suspect that the fraudster may have hacked into the complainant’s email to later misuse it. The accused also ensured that the complainant or his wife do not get any information regarding the unauthorised transactions.

“We are in process of getting the details of the unauthorised transactions from the bank and are investigating the case,” said an officer linked to the probe.