Techie held for creating software to steal money

BANGALORE: The Cyber Crime Police of the Criminal Investigation Department has nabbed a 28-year-old software engineer, who had designed a software to steal money using credit cards and transfer it to an account held by his employer, who runs an NGO. The Trust has been accused of withdrawing around Rs13.3 crore from various accounts with ICICI Bank.The accused, Selva Babu (28), runs V-Cube Technologies, a software firm based in Chennai. Though it took the police over a year to track Babu, the accused managed to get bail and was released within hours of his arrest.Tracing the transactions, the sleuths zeroed in on Babu, who was operating from Chennai, on September 5. “He admitted to developing the software. We have confiscated documents to prove his involvement in the scam, including papers showing that Babu had received `5 lakh from the Trust to develop the software,” the police said. The Trust has seven members and is headed by Regina Seelan. Deputy Superintendent of Police, CID (Cyber Crime), T V Prabhakar, who is heading the probe, told the court that Regina had approached ICICI Bank in March 2010 seeking the electronic gateway facility, which allows donors to make online donations.The Indira Nagar branch of the bank approved this on May 28, 2010, and the NGO uploaded this facility on their official website: http://src-trust.org. Soon, a few NRIs complained that they had not authorised any transaction to the NGO’s account. Maria Ruben, ICICI bank’s legal counsel, Merchant Services Division, filed a case against the Trust, represented by Regina, and 25 other trustees. ICICI’s legal department tried to contact the NGO to verify the transactions, but the trustees did not respond. The CID has issued a search warrant against the NGO and is seeking assistance from the service provider, V-Cube Technologies.