They were arrested in connection with the phishing attack on a Tamil Nadu cooperative bank. It was also revealed that they had targeted a bank in Gujarat from which they swindled 10 lakh.
Two Nigerians, Augustine, 40, and his 37-year-old associate Ekene Godwin have been arrested for phishing attacks and breaking into a bank network in India.
They were arrested in connection with the phishing attack on a Tamil Nadu cooperative bank. It was also revealed that they had targeted a bank in Gujarat from which they swindled 10 lakh.
In Tamil Nadu, they used a cyber tool called Key Logger and broke into the cooperative bank network, whereas in Gujarat they used a tool named Sweet-32, Times Of India reports.
The Chennai cybercrime personnel who are inquiring about the arrested men have alerted their counterparts in Gujarat, and the officers in the latter have initiated action on the pending complaint.
The cybercrime police plan to take the two into their custody to know more about their modus operandi.
As of now, they are in judicial custody after being remanded by a magistrate court.
Usually, banks do not connect their core system to the internet so as to stay away from spyware and cyber-attacks. In this particular case, Augustine sent phishing mail to the bank officials. Soon after they clicked on the link, the embedded software Key Logger and NG Rok got downloaded and entered into the system without alerting the bank officials on November 18.
On November 2022, the gang accessed three accounts, made 32 transactions and took away ₹2.5 crore. On being alerted by bank officials, cybercrime personnel swung into action and managed to retrieve ₹1.5 crore.
However, ₹1 crore had already been transferred to accounts in Nigeria-based Zenith Bank and Bank of Nigeria.
The team of cybercrime personnel then rushed to Uttam Nagar in New Delhi, and camped there for a few days before making the arrests.
The fraudsters also managed to buy cryptocurrencies using stolen money.
Investigations are still ongoing.