New Delhi: The cyber-crime-cracking-cell of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested an Aligarh resident for allegedly defrauding an American national of $ 578 by misusing her credit card through the web.

A CBI spokesman said Arif Azim was arrested on July 24, and accused of misusing credit card details of Barbara Campa, to order a colour television and a cordless phone worth$ 578 through an online shopping site Sony-sambandh.com, a CBI spokesman said hereon July 27.

On reciept of a complaint from Sony India searches were conducted at the residence and offices of Azim where a letter proving that the goods were delivered to him were recovered.

Azim, who has been remanded to police custody till July 28, admitted during interrogation that he got the details from Campa during a live chat on the internet at the call centre where he was a technical support staffer, the spokesman added.

Campa, who had a problem with the billing status of her credit card consulted the call centre for a solution. Azim, who attended to her call, allegedly managed to convince her to reveal her credit card number and other details on the pretext of updating her billing information, although he was not authorised to obtain such information from any customer.

Azim first opened a fake e-mail account in Campa's name so that all correspondence in her name from the website would come to him, and changed his residence after the transaction was completed, he added.

Campa, however, termed the transaction as 'unauthorised', and the payment was reversed by her bank and the credit given to Sony Marketing Asia Pacific, the owners of the website, was withdrawn.

Azim also shifted the televsion and phone to his native place in Aligarh so that he could not be traced. The CBI recovered the goods yesterday.

A CBI search of his office led to the Central Processing nUnit and the terminal of a computer, which was ostensibly used by Azim to place the order for the goods and carry out all his online transactions, the spokesman added.

PTI