The Cybercrime Police have cracked a strange fraud case by arresting a 37-year-old engineer in Kanchipuram for allegedly taking a loan using the account number of a US-based software developer and withdrawing the amount.
The complainant, A. Senthilkumar, is a software engineer and a resident of Royapettah. He opened a salary account with HDFC Bank, Mylapore branch and travelled to the US in 2009 after remitting funds. This account was not in use for long and was on the verge of becoming inactive. The mobile number linked to the account was not in use for long and had become inactive.
While he was in the US, his family in Salem received a notice from the bank that he had taken a loan of Rs 300,000 and had withdrawn it in installments. His account did not have funds to withdraw the installments and the notice asked him to repay the loan. Senthilkumar was shocked by this and found that an unknown person had misused his account and mobile number. He filed a complaint with the Cybercrime Police, East Zone, Chennai City Police.
The case was taken up by D. Padmakumari for investigation. After analysing the KYC data, the police found that the phone number linked to the account had been allotted by the service provider to one Rajkamal, an engineer in Ambur, as Senthilkumar had not been using the said number for long. After the phone number was allotted to Rajkamal, he received an SMS from the bank regarding the account maintained by Senthilkumar and also clicked on the link sent by the bank for a pre-approved loan.
Using these details and posing as Senthilkumar, Rajkamal got the loan transferred to the account and the address verified. He managed to get a debit card for Ambur by claiming that Senthilkumar had moved there. By doing this, Rajkamal impersonated the person and fraudulently obtained the loan of Rs 300,000. He also withdrew a total of Rs 460,000 without the knowledge of the original account holder Senthilkumar, police said.
Police arrested S. Rajkamal, a native of Acharapakkam, Kancheepuram in Ambur, and seized a mobile phone from him. He was remanded in judicial custody.
