Bank fraud using AEPS, cheats UP man of Rs 30,000

The victim, Ajay Kumar Srivastava, a resident of Virat Khand, Gomti Nagar, said that he has an account in the Vinay Khand branch of a public sector bank. 

"The miscreants withdrew Rs 10,000 on March 19, Rs 10,000 on May 8 and another Rs 10,000 on May 9 from my account. In the last two instances, the money was transferred on second Saturday and Sunday, both bank holidays," Srivastava said in his complaint to police. 

When he contacted the bank about the transaction, bank officials told him the money was transferred using the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System. 

The police have lodged an FIR and an investigation has been launched by Station House Officer Gomti Nagar, Keshav Kumar Tiwari. 

Superintendent of police, UP Cyber Cell, Triveni Singh said, "It is a typical fraud case in which money was withdrawn from account through AEPS by cloning finger prints. The physical presence of Aadhaar card holder is must for fingerprint matching for these transactions." 

He said that it appears that the fraudsters download Aadhaar card and accessed digital fingerprints. Then they use thermal scanner, butter paper, mirror, thinner gel, glue and image booster chemicals to create thumb impressions on rubber. 

"They put these cloned fingerprints on scanners of biometric machines attached with National Payment Corporation Of India (NPCI) and UIDAI which authenticate the fingerprints and money was then withdrawn from the bank account," the SP said. 

As per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines, Rs 10,000 can be withdrawn per day through AEPS. 

The SP said that investigation is underway and the accused would be arrested soon.