MobiKwik loses Rs 40 crore in 48 hours

GURGAON: Taking advantage of what is believed to be a glitch that blindsided city-based digital wallet company MobiKwik’s systems, around Rs 40 crore were allegedly siphoned off over two days, Sept 11 and 12, from the company’s account through a blitz of UPI transactions. The fraud came to light on Tuesday after the arrest of six men whose accounts contained Rs 9 lakh of this stolen money. Uncannily, this is the second time this has happened to MobiKwik. In Oct 2017, the company was allegedly similarly defrauded of around Rs 19 crore with the money being moved to thousands of personal bank accounts. This time, the glitch happened after the company updated its software earlier this month, investigators said. It apparently allowed Mobikwik users to send much higher amounts of money than their wallet balances. Transactions, the investigators said, also went through if users entered incorrect PINs. Police said how scamsters came to know about this glitch is under probe. Officials said they suspected insiders’ involvement. The fraud was reported on Sept 13 by a MobiKwik employee, citing an audit that had detected suspicious transactions on Sept 11 and 12. According to cops, fraudulent transfers over those two hours amounted to Rs 40.2 crore. “Nearly 5 lakh transactions took place on Sept 11-12, and so far, 2,500 bank beneficiary accounts have been identified. We have managed to freeze Rs 8 crore out of the total fraud amount. This money was deposited in these bank accounts,” said a source. Five of the arrested men are from Nuh. The other is from Palwal. The accused have been identified as Rehan, Waqar Yunus, Wasim Akram, Mohd Amir, Mohd Ansar and Mohd Sakil. All six have been sent to judicial custody. Police spokesperson Ashok Kumar said if any company employee is found to be involved in the scam, strict action will be taken against the individual. Nuh police on Tuesday, meanwhile, asked people to report by Sept 23 any unexplained cash transfers they might have received in their accounts. “If anyone received transactions on Sept 11 and 12 due to technical security lapses or other reasons via the Mobikwik app or received unauthorised payments through the app and wishes to return them, or has any complaints related to such transactions, they can visit the office of the SP. People from Palwal district and other Mewat areas can also come.” Nuh police said in a statement. They have been charged under Section 318(4) (cheating) and 314 (dishonest misappropriation of property) of BNS. Cops are also coordinating with banks to recover the money and identify others who benefited from the alleged fraud. “The company is undertaking all possible and necessary efforts to recover the amount. However, since the police investigation and recovery efforts have just started, it’s not yet possible to ascertain the impact. Based on the preliminary data, as a risk mitigating measure, the FIR was lodged for an amount of Rs 40 crore, out of which, the company has recovered around Rs 14 crore. Thus, the estimated net impact is Rs 26 crore. The company is taking aggressive collection efforts while pursuing legal course of action to recover the full amount over a period of time,” a company spokesperson told TOI.