Pune court convicts 11 accused in Cosmos Bank cyber fraud case

A court in Maharashtra’s Pune convicted 11 people in the Cosmos Bank cyber fraud case, in which hackers siphoned off more than ₹94 crore through a malware attack over a period of two days in 2018, police said on April 23.

A court in Maharashtra's Pune convicted 11 people in the Cosmos Bank cyber fraud case, in which hackers siphoned off more than ₹94 crore through a malware attack over a period of two days in 2018, police said on April 23.

The judicial magistrate (first class) on Saturday sentenced nine of the accused to four years imprisonment and two others to three years and imposed a fine on them, an official said.

The accused were convicted of charges under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act, he said.

At least 18 persons, mainly mules, were arrested from different parts of the country in connection with the fraud that was executed over a period of two days in August 2018.

As per the case details, hackers stole information about Cosmos Bank's VISA and Rupay card customers through a malware, attacked the SWIFT system and siphoned off more than ₹R94 crore on August 11 and 13, 2018.

The hackers had attacked the banks' ATM switch server and withdrew ₹78 crore from various ATMs in 28 countries and another ₹2.5 crore was taken out within India.

In another attack on August 13, hackers again fraudulently transferred ₹13.92 crore to a Hong Kong-based bank using the proxy SWIFT system.