Sleuths of the Central Crime Branch of city police arrested a 38-year-old man on Sunday near the Central Railway Station for allegedly hacking into an e-mail account, sending a phishing e-mail and cheating a man to the tune of `4 lakh promising to get him jobs in the United States.
Police said B Ramachandra Reddy (38) of Ponnur in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, was arrested near the Chennai Central Railway Station for allegedly hacking into the e-mail account of one Narasimha Reddy Putta and sending a phishing e-mail to the latter’s friend, K Venugopal Naidu, promising jobs in the US for him and his brother Chandrasekar, an employee of a software company.
Police said the accused had maintained a bank account in his neighbour’s name and had collected the money using that account.
Venugopal Naidu, who was working in a software firm here, believed the e-mails sent to him and transferred `4.05 lakh through online banking facility from his brother’s bank account to an account in the Kodambakkam branch of a bank. The money was claimed to be for processing the visa application, police said.
Later, when Venugopal realised that he was cheated and that his friend’s account was hacked, police said that Venugopal lodged a complaint. Police then traced the money that Venugopal had transferred to one Ramesh of Trust Puram in Kodambakkam.
Upon interrogation, Ramesh told police that he had helped his neighbour Ramachandra Reddy open a bank account in his name in 2009 as Ramachandra did not have any documents to prove his identity and place of residence.
Police said Ramachandra Reddy was studying in Chennai in 1998 and was Ramesh’s neighbour in Trust Puram in Kodambakkam. After Ramesh helped Ramachandra Reddy open an account, he gave him a book of self-signed cheques.
Ramachandra Reddy was arrested and, upon interrogation, confessed to having hacked Narasimha’s email account and cheating the complainant.
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