The Cyber Crime Police have solved a strange case of fraud by arresting a 37-year-old engineer in Kancheepuram for allegedly raising a loan using the account number of a software engineer who was in the US 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 in 2009, left to the US following transfer. This account was not operated for long and was about to go inactive. The mobile number which was linked to the account was not used for long and had gone inactive.
While he was in the US, his family in Salem received a notice from the bank stating that he had obtained a loan of ₹3 lakh and had withdrawn it in instalments. There was insufficient funds in his account for deduction of EMI and the notice demanded him to repay the loan. Shocked over this, Senthilkumar realised that an unidentified person had misused his account and mobile phone number. He lodged a complaint with the Cyber Crime Police of East Zone, Chennai City Police.
The case was taken up by D.Padmakumari for investigation. After analysing KYC details, the police found that the phone number attached to the account was allotted to one Rajkamal, an engineer in Ambur, by the service provider, since Senthilkumar had not used the said number for long. After the phone number was allotted to Rajkamal, he received an SMS from the bank relating to the account held by Senthilkumar and also clicked the link sent by the bank for a pre-approved loan.
Using those details and pretending to be Senthilkumar, Rajkamal got the loan sanctioned in the account and address verification was done. He managed to obtain a debit card to Ambur by claiming that Senthilkumar had shifted there. Thereby, Rajkamal impersonated and fraudulently obtained the loan of ₹3 lakh. He also had withdrawn ₹4.6 lakh in total, without the knowledge of the original account holder Senthilkumar, the police said.
Police arrested S.Rajkamal, a native of Acharapakkam, Kancheepuram in Ambur and recovered a mobile phone from him. He was remanded to judicial custody.
