E-wallet firm employee held for cheating customers

An employee from an e-commerce firm was held recently for cheating customers by stealing their passwords and using them for unauthorised transactions, the state cyber police confirmed.

The accused is a field sales executive at the company, and under the pretext of resolving technical errors in the app of customers, he would reset their password and memorise it. Later he would use the password to illegally transfer money into desired accounts.

The probe has revealed that he has similarly carried out 4-5 unauthorised transactions. His partner, who taught him the trick of how to withdraw money using someone else’s password, is wanted in the case.

The accused has been arrested on the complaint of a milk shop owner in Andheri (West). The victim lodged a complaint with the cyber police in September after he discovered that five unauthorised transactions worth over ₹50,000 were carried out between August 19 and September 20 from his e-wallet account.

On October 5 when the victim checked his email account he found an August 19 email from the company alerting him of a suspicious login on his account from an unknown device. Patel had missed this email, cyber police said.

The cyber police officers arrested the accused after analysing the details of the beneficiary account. His interrogation revealed that as he was working for the company and thus got details of the customers.

“He would visit customers and under the pretext of resolving errors in their apps, would reset the password and memorise the new password. Later he would log in to the customer’s account from another device and make unauthorised transactions. He is believed to have similarly stolen money from 4-5 such customers,” said a police source.

The number of victims may increase as the investigation progresses. The person who taught Ansari how to do this con job is wanted in the case and would soon be arrested, the police said.

He has booked under sections 420, 34 of Indian Penal Code and 43A, 66 and 66C of Information Technology Act. His mobile phone has been seized by the police to secure evidence.