Bengaluru police have arrested four individuals, including Vaibhav Pithadiya, a relationship manager at Axis Bank in Rajkot, in connection with a large-scale fraud involving the siphoning of Rs 12 crore from the accounts of Dreamplug Paytech Solutions Private Limited. The others arrested are Parmar Neha Ben Vipulbhai, a banking agent from Surat; Shailesh, an insurance agent from Rajkot; and Shubham, a commission agent from Rajkot.
The complainant in the case is Narasimha Vasanth Sastry, an executive at Dreamplug, which operates the credit card reward platform, Cred. The fraudulent activity came to light on November 12 when the company noticed unusual transactions from its Axis Bank accounts. Investigations revealed that the fraudsters had withdrawn Rs 12.2 crore from Dreamplug’s accounts, exploiting weaknesses in Axis Bank’s processes. They submitted forged documents to gain unauthorized access to the company’s accounts, changing crucial details such as the registered mobile number and email ID, which enabled them to intercept OTPs and authorize transactions.
The scheme was executed through 37 transactions over a span of 14 days, from October 29 to November 11, after fraudulent requests were made in July and October to change account details. Despite clear discrepancies, such as requests originating from Gujarat instead of Bengaluru, the bank approved the changes.
Vaibhav Pithadiya was identified as the mastermind, as he had access to sensitive account details and recognized unused user IDs tied to Dreamplug’s accounts. Neha acted as an intermediary, facilitating the sharing of sensitive data, while Shailesh was responsible for forging documents to manipulate the accounts. Shubham laundered the stolen funds by transferring them to mule accounts opened across various banks.
Authorities are continuing to investigate the case, with the potential for more arrests as the probe progresses.