Himachal: Cyber fraudsters hack mobile app, dupe cooperative bank of Rs 11.55 crore

The Himachal Pradesh State Cooperative Bank has been duped of Rs 11.55 crore by cyber fraudsters after they hacked the bank server through the mobile phone of a customer.

According to reports, the fraudsters first hacked the mobile banking application of a customer of the bank’s Halti’s branch in Chamba district and then entered Himpesa, the mobile banking application.

The scammers than proceeded to carry out unauthorised national electronic funds transfer (NEFT) and real-time gross settlement (RTGS) transactions. The withdrawn amount was then transferred to 20 different bank accounts.

The state cyber cell said that the incident reportedly occurred on May 11 and 12, but the matter came to light on May 14. Due to holidays, the bank was not able to receive the transaction report from

the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

After the bank authorities came to know about the fraud after going through the transaction report received on May 14, they immediately lodged a complaint at the Sadar police station, Shimla, which then transferred the case to the Shimla cyber police station.

Deputy Inspector General (Cybercrime) Mohit Chawla said that an investigation was underway.

He added that a team of Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-in) from New Delhi was on its way to Shimla to assist in the investigation.

He said that further details of the case would be known after a thorough investigation by the emergency response team and the cyber commandos of the state.

He said that the emergency response team would use its tool, through which it would be revealed how hackers were able to conduct the transactions through the Himpesa application.

Meanwhile, the bank authorities assured the customers that their money was safe and the amounts transferred through the transactions had been put on hold.

They also assured the customers that the bank was working to upgrade its systems.

Himachal Tribune