BPO scam: Suspect received Rs 80,000 for leaking data

Even as the Cyber Crime Police in Bangalore plan to seek the assistance of Interpol and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the data theft case reported from HSBC’s off-shore data processing centre here, the accused HSBC staffer Nadeem Kashmiri has confessed to receiving an amount of Rs 80,000 from his co-fraudsters in London in return for parting confidential and sensitive information of account holders.

During interrogation, 24-year-old Nadeem Kashmiri told police that he he received Rs 4,000 for every fraudulent transaction he made at the behest of his accomplices in the UK. “An amount of over Rs 80,000 was transferred to his friend’s account in Bangalore through Western Union Money Transfer”, according to police sources.

Nadeem confessed that he was in touch with one Ershad in London at whose behest he continued to leak sensitive data of 20 HSBC customers in the UK to the his co-fraudsters. Ershad and his accomplices in London used the information to transfer money from HSBC customers’ accounts to other unknown accounts.

The HSBC has estimated that a total of 233,000 pounds had been swindled from 20 accounts during March and April this year. “The actual fraud had been committed between March 14 and April 3 after which the HSBC plugged his ID and suspended him on April 14”, Director General of Police, Corps of Detectives (CoD), K R Srinivasan told reporters.

Though Nadeem’s brother and his girl friend advised him to desist from such activity, the accused claimed that his accomplices in UK subjected him to blackmail. “The co-fraudsters are understood to have threatened him through an e-mail that they would inform the employers of his misconduct if he does not feed them with sensitive data of the bank’s account holders”, a police official said.

Though the suspect has claimed that he came across the accomplices through Internet and they had promised him a job in London, investigators are not ruling out the possibility of Nadeem having personally met the co-fraudsters.

Deputy Inspector General of Police, Economic Offences, CoD, Sanjay Vir Singh said the modus operandi of the accused in passing on information about UK customers indicates that he could just be a pawn in a “whole syndicate”.

The investigators have also not ruled out the possibility of a terrorist group planning to break the security system of international banks. “In view of the international ramifications, we will seek assistance from Interpol to unravel the racket”, Srinivasan said.

Meanwhile, Nadeem was produced before a City magistrate, who remanded him in police custody till July 4. “If necessary, Nadeem will be subjected to narco-analysis after seeking permission from the court”, investigating officials said.