Kozhikode: Kozhikode's Feroke Police arrested a young man who has been duping businesses of lakhs of rupees by misusing a banking option to schedule online payments in advance.

E G Abhishek (23), a resident of Aroli in Kannur's Pappinisseri, was in a mobile shop in Kasaragod town, possibly laying the ground for his next job when Feroke police swooped down and arrested him Tuesday evening. "We were tracing his mobile phone for some time. He disappeared from his house and surfaced in Ernakulam. But later signals from his phone pinged off from a tower in Kasaragod and we reached there in a jiffy," said sub-inspector Anoop S.

Feroke police were looking for Abhishek, a BCom graduate, after he allegedly duped a mobile shop in Kozhikode's Ramanattukara of Rs 2 lakh by buying two iPhones without paying the money on July 18. He targeted the mobile phone shop in Ramanattunkara after spending 13 days in jail and getting out on bail, said SI Anoop.

Kannur City police arrested him after he duped Nesto supermarket in Kannur's Thazhe Chovva of Rs 44,657 on July 3.

In the two cases, Abhishek made the payment through RTGS (Real-Time Gross Settlement) system at the outlets but secretly activated the 'schedule transaction in advance' option. "That option not only allows bank customers to schedule a transaction without money in the account but also puts out a 'transaction successful' message once the transaction is scheduled," said the officer. It is a banking loophole Abhishek has been exploiting, he said.

He used the ICICI Bank app which allowed scheduling of payment three working days in advance. "Later, he can cancel the transaction and not run afoul of the bank," said SI Anoop. Police suspect he might have duped several other businesses using the 'schedule payment' option of RTGS. "We suspect a bank employee might have guided him," the sub-inspector said.

Extensive groundwork to win trust
But this method of duping retailers would work only if he had already won the trust of the retailers. For, they would have to let him go with the expensive purchases without actually getting the money.
"Abhishek invested a lot of time to win our trust," said Abdul Salam of the retail phone outlet at Ramanattukara, 115 km from his house at Aroli in Kannur district.

He used to frequent the shop posing as a movie producer and buying mobile accessories such as screen guards. He would be wearing a heavy gold chain and bracelet. "Looking back, I suspect the jewellery was imitation gold," said Abdul Salam.

Later, he visited the shop with a woman who behaved as if she was his wife. Later, Abhishek told Salam that he wanted two phones, an iPhone 15 Max Pro for himself and an iPhone 14 Max Pro for his 'wife'. "Since we did not have the phones, we agreed to get them for him. It was a big order for us," he said.

On July 18, when the phones arrived, Abhishek and the woman came to the shop late in the evening. He wanted a third phone, a used iPhone 12. (Later, the shop recovered the used phone from him.) "Abhishek immediately transferred the full amount via RTGS and showed us the message that the transaction was successful. But we did not get the money," said Abdul Salam.

Abhishek and the woman, Praseeda, offered to wait till the money was credited to the shop's account. "They waited for one to one and a half hours. That's when the salesman felt bad about keeping the couple waiting for so long," he said.

The salesman called the shop owner and apprised him of the situation. The shop owner asked the salesman if he read the message saying the transaction was successful and if he knew the customer well. The salesman answered in affirmative to both questions. "So the owner asked the salesman to allow them to leave," said Abdul Salam.
Abhishek left his phone number with the shop with the promise to return tomorrow if the glitch persisted. When the money was not credited the following day, Abhishek bought time till evening. After that, his phone was switched off.

Sub-inspector Anoop said Abhishek sold the two brand-new iPhones for Rs 1.26 lakh in another shop and received part of the money in cash and the rest in his bank account. He had deployed the same strategy to dupe the supermarket in Kannur, said the officer.

Feroke Police booked Abhishek for criminal breach of trust [Section 316 (2) of BNS] and cheating [Section 318 (4)]. He was remanded in judicial custody on Wednesday, July 24. The sub-inspector said he would be serving a notice to the woman and making her an accused in the case, too. "She was complicit in the crime," he said.