Inter-State Racket of Fraudsters Used Darknet for Hacking People’s Bank Accounts

The cyber cell of Madhya Pradesh in India, busted an inter-state racket of fraudsters, who were using information from 'Darknet' for hacking the bank accounts of people. 'Darknet' is a computer network that has a restricted access, and is only available to a few selected people.

Five accused were arrested by the police, in a case related to ATM forgery, when an Assistant Professor from the city of Indore reported a theft of INR 16,000 from her account. The Times of India reported that the money was fraudulently withdrawn from victim's bank account, as per the complaint lodged with the Police of Indore. The prime accused of the case named Deepak is still absconding.

Pranjal, a senior bureaucrat's son, was also the one amongst the arrested five accused. Pranjal revealed to the police that Deepak - the mastermind behind these frauds - use to run the racket, and he came to know about the Darknet only through Deepak. Pranjal further stated that he then began accessing the credit card and bank details of the people from Darknet using bitcoin. And after having this information, he used to transfer money from the people's accounts.

Deepak, the kingpin, use to carry out frauds, with the help of his huge network comprising agents and sub-agents all over the country. These agents and sub-agents offered services such as bill payment or air ticket provider, wherein the customers sometimes were lured to buy the tickets having heavy discounts. The hacked accounts money was used by these agents to pay for these customer services, and they were keeping the money taken from customers. Then the agents kept their charging commission, and converted the remaining amount into bicoins, which were then sent to Deepak, hence eliminating money trail. The agents transferred the money to Deepak through e-wallets using fake identities.

The huge commissions made out of this business were spent by the agents to maintain a luxurious lifestyle. Three of the accused out of five belonged to rich families.

Commenting on the total worth of the fraud, SP Rajesh Bhadoria said that "so far INR 62 lakh fraud has been traced to the accused. The racket could be worth crores".

» SPAMfighter News - 9/13/2018