TN man held in Mumbai for demanding Rs 1 crore in return of sensitive bank data

Mumbai: A 48-year-old man from Tamil Nadu was arrested on charges of extortion on Wednesday by the Mumbai Cyber Crime Cell after he threatened a city-based bank of leaking confidential customer details unless he were paid a sum of Rs 1 crore.

According to reports, the man, Sunder Mahakrishnan Rajan, contacted the assistant manager of the bank on July 24 through email, claiming that he had possession Micro-SD chip, which contained confidential data of around 20,000 customers.

Seeking a response from the bank, he added that he was looking to sell the data, and also had a few interested buyers in view.

Perturbed, the bank official immediately appraised his seniors of the mail.

Two days later, he was surprised to receive another email from the same sender, this time with added proof that he had access to the sensitive data. He demanded a sum of Rs 1 crore so as to refrain from selling the data.

“In order to convince the bank that the threat was genuine, the sender attached account details of six customers whose accounts were closed and details of 11 others whose accounts were in use. After the sent data got confirmed as the bank's, a complaint was lodged with the police," police sources were quoted as saying.

The cyber cell then laid a snare to entrap the accused.

The bank official, was asked to come to a hotel in Bandra, Mumbai, where police officials in civil clothes apprehended the suspect.

The police is investigating how Rajan got hold of the SD card.