BHADRACHALAM: Account holders in the State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH) branch at Paloncha in Khammam district got a rude introduction to the ways of computer hacking when they found their bank balances dwindling suddenly over three days this week. Cyber criminals from Delhi reportedly hacked into their bank accounts and stole Rs 6.45 lakh. Eleven account holders who got wise to the theft of their savings approached the bank on Saturday morning and lodged complaints with the bank manager.Inquiries by branch manager G Narasimha Chary revealed that money was withdrawn from these 11 persons’ accounts on January 10, 11 and 12 through an ATM located on Parliament Street in New Delhi. The account holders had never ever been to New Delhi nor had transactions with anyone there.The victims include M Nageswara Rao, V Snehalatha, K Ramachari, B N Chari, Padma, Adinarayana, Lal Singh, Saroja, Srinivas, Vijay and Paparao. Some of them are employees of Kothagudem Thermal Power Station, teachers and local businessmen.However, none of the account holders nor the bank authorities are aware of the methods used by hackers to withdraw the cash.“It seems the money was withdrawn in three intervals from each account. We have informed our head office at Hyderabad, who in turn will pursue the case with the Cyber Crime police,” Narasimha Chary told Express.The bank authorities have stopped online transactions of all the 11,000 account holders in the branch as a precautionary measure. As a result, the account holders had difficulty withdrawing money, as the bank is closed for the next couple of days for Sankranti.
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