“The present contains nothing more than the past, and what is found in the effect was already in the cause.” - Henri Bergson

Background
The accused in the case were working in a BPO, that was handling the business of a multinational bank. The accused, during the course of their work had obtained the personal identification numbers (PIN) and other confidential information of the bank’s customers. Using these the accused and their accomplices, through different cyber cafes, transferred huge sums of money from the accounts of different customers to fake accounts.

Investigation
On receiving the complaint the entire business process of the complainant firm was studied and a systems analysis was conducted to establish the possible source of the data theft.

The investigators were successful in arresting two people as they laid a trap in a local bank where the accused had fake accounts for illegally transferring money.

During the investigation the system server logs of the BPO were collected. The IP addresses were traced to the Internet service provider and ultimately to the cyber cafes through which illegal transfers were made.

The registers maintained in cyber cafes and the owners of cyber cafes assisted in identifying the other accused in the case. The e-mail IDs and phone call print outs were also procured and studied to establish the identity of the accused. The e-mail accounts of the arrested accused were scanned which revealed vital information to identify the other accused. Some e-mail accounts of the accused contained swift codes, which were required for internet money transfer.

All the 17 accused in the case were arrested in a short span of time. The charge sheet was submitted in the court within the stipulated time. In the entire wire transfer scam, an amount to the tune of about INR 19 million was transferred, out of this INR 9 million was blocked in transit due to timely intimation by police, INR 2 million was held in balance in one of the bank accounts opened by the accused which was frozen. In addition the police recovered cash, ornaments, vehicles and other articles amounting to INR 3 million.

During the investigation the investigating officer learned the process of wire transfer, the banking procedures and weakness in the system. The investigating officer suggested measures to rectify the weakness in the present security systems of the call centre. This has helped the local BPO industry in taking appropriate security measures.

Current status
Pending trial in the court.

This case won the India Cyber Cop Award, for its investigating officer Mr Sanjay Jadhav, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Crime, Pune Police. The panel of judges felt that this case was the most significant one for the Indian IT industry during 2005 and was investigated in a professional manner, with substantial portion of the swindled funds being immobilised, a large number of persons were arrested and the case was sent to the court for trial within 90 days.