KATHMANDU: The police have nabbed and made public the 3 hackers involved in stealing money using the social networks like Viber, WhatsApp, Emo, and Facebook.

The special team of the Metropolitan Crime Division of police arrested and made them public on Wednesday.

“The foreign hackers are found involving Nepali nationals as agents to swindle money worth millions,” the police sources told Khabarhub, “out of 40 such agents the police have arrested Ramesh Khadka-52, Fulawa, Dolakha, and Bishweswor Prasad Tiwari-17, and Sandip Kalwar-19 of Ramgram, Nawalparasi.”

Swindle handled from outside

According to the police, some Nigerian and Indian nationals have been using the most popular social media like Viber, WhatsApp, Emo, and Facebook to execute the act of defrauding against Nepalis from the towns like Delhi, Mumbai, Pakistan, China, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Nepal.

Claiming that the account holder has got a big parcel or lottery, the frauds had been provoking the customers to deposit the amount on their bank account. The police say that some of them were found hacking some bank and financial institutions and having regular transactions in some other institutions.

The agents used to get 15-20% of the amount collected in Nepal and 80-85% went in the account of the agent.

The police informed Khabarhub that the thugs were nabbed from various places of Kathmandu valley and the investigation is directed towards the possibility of hacking instances in other banks and financial institutions.

According to the police, the hackers had used 17 banks including Bank of Kathmandu, Prabhu Bank, Mega Bank, Himalayan Bank, Sunrise Bank, Citizen’s bank to heist Agriculture Development Bank and Panash Remit.

The police sources say that sometimes the hackers were found getting the Nepali agents to open their bank account in more than 6 banks to ease their transactions. According to the police sources, there are more than 40  such agents working for the hacking gang.

The police have estimated the suspicious transactions to be worth more than 146.79 million rupees. Talking about the Nepali agents’ involvement, the police say that 34 Nepalis are already booked in the record of online fraud.

The police record shows 15 such fraud victims in police contact.

Citing the possibility of the banks used by the agents being hacked, the police has directed investigation towards the sector as well.