Mumbai: BPO staffer gets rich by stealing international fliers' refund

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The Bangur Nagar police in Goregaon West have booked an employee of a prominent BPO firm for allegedly siphoning refunds worth Rs 31 lakh off accounts of 18 Easyjet users - all foreigners. The FIR also mentions the name of a former employee of the company who helped the prime accused in the fraud. The main accused, Nikhil Kanekar, committed the crime between February and September 2018, but his deeds became known when the users started enquiring about their compensation for flight cancellation.

The employees of the BPO firm at Mindspace in Malad West, which provided Teleperformance services to Easyjet Aviation Services Private Limited, had access to the Easyjet users' data which they filed at the time of seeking a refund. Kanekar, who worked as a team leader at the firm, allegedly used this data to steal the money. He took the help of Amit Sawant, from Mira road, to transfer the refund amount to his bank accounts.

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The FIR was registered on the complaint of the team manager, police said. The duo have been booked under Sections 408 (criminal breach of trust by clerk or servant), 420 (cheating), 463 (forgery), 465 (punishment for forgery) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, and 43 (damage to computer), 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act on August 3.

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