Breaches and incidents
Bhavnagar District Co-operative Bank (India): fake balances created in dormant accounts, about Rs 7.3 crore moved out
Nearly Rs 7 crore was taken from four branches (Talaja, Bharatnagar, Subhashnagar and Sidsar) in transactions processed on a Sunday when the bank was closed.
- Disclosed
- Verification
- Confirmed by two or more outlets
What happened
- Nearly Rs 7 crore was taken from four branches (Talaja, Bharatnagar, Subhashnagar and Sidsar) in transactions processed on a Sunday when the bank was closed; at least four mobile phones were used (Indian Cooperative, 11 Mar 2026). Police later put it at Rs 7.34 crore: attackers replaced the registered mobile numbers on four dormant accounts, created a virtual balance of about Rs 7.35 crore and routed money to 135 accounts; Rs 2.04 crore frozen (DeshGujarat, 19 Apr 2026).
- Root cause: early reports say unauthorised access to the bank’s software through a mobile application; police later said servers, database and core banking were compromised and electronic records manipulated. The exact flaw is not disclosed.
- Attacker: a syndicate; Gujarat CID Crime’s Cyber Centre of Excellence arrested 4 in April and 10 in total by 11 Jul 2026.
- Response: case registered with CID Crime, Gandhinagar; arrests continuing.