Deputy commissioner of police Sunil Phulari of the Cyber Crime Cell of Pune police admitted that phishing attacks are on the rise in Pune with the growth of IT sector and increasing number of online banking customers.

“A racket of local and international cyber criminals are involved in the phishing attacks. The police is trying to nab the criminals but the best way to avoid such crimes is taking the necessary precautions,” he said.

Now, the IT and ITeS Association (IIA) of Pune has identified some phishing site URLs that are currently being used by the cyber criminals for cheating the customers of ICICI and HDFC Bank.

“Using marketing software tools, cyber criminals are suspected to have collected data of over 12,000 online banking customers of ICICI and HDFC Bank in India and abroad, who have a minimum of a Rs one lakh in their account”, said Sudam Choure, president of IIA, Pune.

In November, Vinay Kavde of Pune, a software professional who is currently working with Infosys in the US, received an e-mail bearing ICICI bank’s name and logo on November 12. The e-mail requested Vinay to update his bank account and he followed the instructions given. Following this, the cyber criminals transferred Rs 5 lakh from his account. Vinay’s father Jaywant Kavde lodged a complaint at Deccan Gymkhana police station. Police found that Vinay’s money was transferred into the ICICI account of Rakesh Barve from Indore.

Barve and three accomplices were arrested, while searches are still on for nabbing the main accused. The police have recovered Rs 2.22 lakh from the accused. Now the 64-year-old Jaywant Kavde is running from pillar to post from police station to lawyer to court for getting his money back.

“I am fighting in the court to get the orders for receiving the money seized from the accused. I have also requested the ICICI bank to fight the case with me as the bank is also a victim of the fraud”, Jaywant told The Indian Express.

When contacted Pramod Dube, Regional head of ICICI, he said that he was not authorised to talk about the issue. According to Choure, the criminals send fraudulent emails to customers. The email carries phishing site URLs that direct the customers to websites that virtually look like original bank websites. “Some urgent messages like “unauthorised net banking access on your account” or “security update of online users” are displayed on the websites, asking the customers to submit their confidential information for safety reasons”, he said. Choure pointed out the recent case where Anilkumar Bansal, a businessman from Pimpri who lost Rs 2.4 lakh from his HDFC Bank account after his confidential information was submitted to a fraudulent email in December first week.

Vishal Salvi, Chief Information Security Officer of HDFC bank has circulated about emails stating the precautionary measures against phishing attack the customers.