Hacked: RPG Group‘s Rs 2.4 crore gone in 3 hours

The RPG Group of companies became the latest victim of online banking fraud when cybercriminals hacked into the firm's Mumbai-based current account and siphoned off Rs 2.41 crore in three hours on May 11.

The first of the 13 money transfers to accounts across India was made at 11.30am and the last at 2.30pm, before the bank got suspicious of the huge cash transfers and checked with the group confirming the fraud, the Worli police said. The largest transaction was of Rs 25 lakh and the smallest Rs 15 lakh.

Three men (names withheld ), who received the money in their accounts, have been arrested in Coimbatore and Hyderabad by three special teams formed by additional commissioner of police (central region) Praveen Salunke. They will be brought to Mumbai on Saturday.

The bank has blocked the accounts, but the hackers, who most likely stole the company's username and password through a Trojan malware, had managed to withdraw some funds from the accounts, sources said.

The teams kept a watch on the banks in Coimbatore and Hyderabad, where the funds had been transferred, and nabbed people who came to withdraw money from these accounts. The teams, led by inspector Suresh Mahadik, are interrogating the men in custody to get to others involved in the racket.

The 13 transactions were done through Real Time Gross Settlement ( RTGS), a system through which funds are transferred in real time by an account holder from one bank to another. "The money was transferred to 13 bank branches in Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Jharkhand, Tirunelveli and other places," a Worli police officer said.

Investigators said the criminals followed a modus operandi similar to the one executed on January 31 when Rs 1 crore was siphoned off in Mulund from the current account of a cosmetics company. "Prima facie, the company officials may have responded to a Trojan mail sent by the fraudsters. The hacker then probably got the group's current account and username when officials logged in," said an investigator.