Gmail hackers defrauding people pan-India held

New Delhi, March 3 (IANS) A module of cyber crooks, who used to defraud people pan-India by hacking their Gmail accounts, has been busted by Delhi Police with the arrest of two M.Com students, an official said here on Thursday.

The accused have been identified as Anurag Kumar Singh and Vikas Kumar Maddheshiya, both pursuing their M.Com in Prayagraj.

The duo reveled that they were trained to compromise Gmail accounts by a pan-India gang over Zoom meetings. The police termed it as a "major internet security issue and a matter of concern".

Furnishing details about the matter, DCP Brijendra Kumar Yadav said that a case was registered based on a complaint received on the NCRP portal, which said that a man was defrauded of Rs 89,100 in a clandestine manner.

A transaction was made from his SBI account even though he did not share the OTP with anyone, as he was sleeping at that time.

Accordingly, the police registered a case under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code and took up the investigation.

"Information was sought from Flipkart which provided two email accounts that were used by the fraudsters to purchase Google gift cards. SBI Credit Card officials provided data of the transactions carried out by the fraudsters," the DCP said.

From both the links, a common IP address was identified. Cyber-tracking conducted after information was received from Flipkart helped the police trace the accused persons to the ADA Colony in Prayagraj. A raid was conducted at the specified location from where both the accused were arrested.

During interrogation, the duo revealed that they hacked the Gmail accounts of the victims, and once access was obtained, they committed financial fraud using the bank/credit/debit card details with the help of their associate, Prabhakar Vikram Singh, who is yet to be arrested.

It was further revealed that so far, they compromised more than 25 Gmail accounts and defrauded people of lakhs of rupees.

A search is on to nab the remaining accused person.