How Nigerian Man Hacked Indian Doctor's Account and Withdrew N2.7m

A Nigerian man has been nabbed after he was said to have hacked into the account of an Indian doctor to withdraw as much as N2.7 million.

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Simply identified as Francis, a Nigerian man is presently assisting the Indian Police with its investigation after he was arrested for his role in an alleged hacking of a doctor’s bank account.

According to a Punch Metro report, the Nigerian and one Avinash Dixit were said to have withdrawn Rs 5 lakh (about N2.77m) from Dr Sandeep Gupta’s account in July.

Police said Francis claimed to be the brother of a football player, Henry Ezeh, who previously played for Air India but now plays for a Turkish club.

Francis, who with the help of Dixit was cheating people by claiming to be working for the income tax department, had allegedly called Dr Gupta with false information that he [the doctor] was due for a refund of Rs 5,000 [about N28,000] from the IT Department.

He requested Dr Gupta’s PAN and Aadhaar card number and then asked him to install an app on his mobile for enabling him to transfer the “refund” amount to his account.

Dr Gupta followed his instructions only to realize 15 days later that Rs 5 lakhs had been transferred out from his account to someone else’s.

The suspect had hacked into Dr Gupta’s mobile phone to get the OTPs from his bank.

Realising his mistake, Dr Gupta immediately contacted the police.