Fraudsters hack payment gateway company account, siphon off Rs 16,180 cr

A major cybercrime incident has been reported where fraudsters hacked into a payment gateway service provider company account and siphoned off Rs 16,180 crore. The funds were siphoned off from different bank accounts over a period of time, according to news agency PTI. 

The fraud was taking place for long and came to light following a complaint lodged with the Srinagar police station in Maharashtra's Thane. The complaint said that the payment gateway account of the company was hacked in April 2023 and Rs 25 crore was siphoned off. When the police conducted a probe into it, a mega fraud worth over Rs 16,180 crore came to light, the official told the news agency. 

Following a complaint by a Thane crime branch official, an FIR has been registered against Sanjay Singh, Amol Andale, Sameer Dighe, Jitendra Pandey, and another unidentified person under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust), 467, 468 (forgery), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention) and provisions of the Information Technology Act. 

As per the FIR, accused Jitendra Pandey earlier worked for 8 to 10 years with banks as a relationship and sales manager. The police suspect there may be many players in this mega racket, which has been going on for a long time and may have targeted several companies and individuals. 

The crime is suspected to be spread over thousands of bank accounts and the money transferred into several other accounts, the FIR said, adding that the police probe team has recovered several forged documents from the accused. 

Earlier this month, fraudsters in Himachal Pradesh cheated thousands of investors of more than Rs 200 crore over a period of five years, beginning in 2018. The people alleged to be part of a gang lured people by promising them high returns in a short span of time on crypto investments and created a network of investors.

(With inputs from PTI)