Noida Police have uncovered an interstate cyber fraud syndicate responsible for defrauding Nainital Bank of ₹16 crore. Acting on intelligence inputs, officers from the Sector-36 Cyber Crime Police Station apprehended four individuals from the Sigma-4 sector of Greater Noida, including a foreign national with alleged expertise in cybercrime.
The operation, led by the cyber crime unit, resulted in the recovery of ₹50,000 in cash, eight checkbooks, seven mobile phones, one laptop, two passports, and narcotics valued at approximately ₹20 lakh.
According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) the mastermind of the operation, identified as Shavez, facilitated the fraud by providing bank account details belonging to unsuspecting individuals. These accounts were then used to siphon off large sums of money, including transfers made to Nainital Bank.
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The arrested foreign national, identified as Alex, is believed to have played a pivotal role in the technical execution of the fraud. Authorities revealed that Alex, who has been residing in India for over a decade, is a cyber fraud specialist with deep knowledge of digital deception tactics.
Police have intensified their investigation and are interrogating the accused to uncover the full extent of the racket. Efforts are also underway to trace and apprehend other members of the network who may still be at large.
This arrest comes in the wake of a similar cyber heist in June 2024, where cybercriminals allegedly hacked into the servers of Nainital Bank’s Noida branch and siphoned off ₹16.1 crore.
In that case, the fraudsters diverted funds across 84 accounts before the bank’s IT Manager, Sumit Srivastava, detected anomalies during a routine reconciliation of the RTGS account balance sheets. His vigilance led to the registration of a case with the Noida Cyber Crime Police and the involvement of the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN) for a forensic investigation.