Cyber fraudsters, bank employees hand in glove, say Gurugram police

Sanjay Yadav

Gurugram, April 10

Employees of various private banks are increasingly being found complicit in aiding cyber fraudsters, leading to a surge in cybercrime cases. The nexus between cybercriminals and bank employees is being uncovered at an alarming rate, contributing to the rise in such criminal activities.

In a recent development, the Gurugram Cyber Police arrested yet another bank employee who was facilitating cyber fraudsters by providing them with bank accounts. This arrest adds to the tally of 10 other bank employees who have been nabbed by the police in the last three months for their involvement in cyber fraud cases.

A senior cyber police officer said numerous bank employees yield to the allure of monetary gain and engage in fraudulent activities. They open bank accounts in the names of individuals or companies using forged documents and without proper verification. In exchange for their services in creating these fake accounts, the bank employees “charge from Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000”. Unfortunately, these employees fail to realise that the fake accounts they create are ultimately utilised by cybercriminals to deceive innocent individuals through various cybercrime tactics.

The cyber police arrested Himanshu Gangwar (29), a resident of Gopalpur village in Bareilly district, Uttar Pradesh, and an employee of Yes Bank, on Tuesday. Prior to this, he had held positions in several other banks. He was arrested in connection with a cyber fraud case where an man was deceived of Rs 6 lakh under the guise of task-based work-from-home opportunities in December 2013.

“During interrogation, it was disclosed that a portion of the defrauded amount, totalling Rs 3 lakh, was transferred by the accused to an individual named Kushal Marmat while he was employed at the Sushant Lok branch of ICICI bank in Gurugram. The accused admitted to opening an account in the name of a fictitious company without proper verification, for which he received Rs 10,000. Additionally, the accused confessed to opening another bank account in AU Small Finance Bank at the request of Marmat, again without proper verification. We are currently interrogating the accused,” said Siddharth Jain, DCP Cyber.

DCP Jain said 10 employees from various banks have already been arrested this year for their involvement with cybercriminals.

Urged banks to cooperate

Our teams are actively pursuing cyber fraudsters and we have issued notices to banks to cooperate with our investigations. More employees from certain banks are under our scrutiny. — Siddharth Jain, Cyber DCP

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