UP man learns fingerprint cloning online, hacks 500 bank accounts

"It takes just ₹5 to clone a fingerprint," says 26-year-old Gaurav, who learnt cloning fingerprints using glue-gun and adhesive online, and allegedly hacked nearly 500 bank accounts of the beneficiaries of various government schemes in nexus with bank mitras.

An investigation was launched after police received repeated complaints from several beneficiaries that they had not received money from the government into their bank accounts. The crime branch took over the probe and found that the money was credited into the beneficiaries' accounts, but it was later withdrawn through Jan Suvidha Kendras being run by bank mitras.

Six people, including Gaurav — a graduate who runs a photocopy shop — were arrested, while two are still at large, said Shahjahanpur police, who seized nearly 500 cloned fingerprints of beneficiaries along with their Aadhaar cards and bank passbooks.

"We are trying to gather more information about such gangs active in the state by sharing the information with headquarters," said IG Rajesh Pandey while announcing a cash reward of Rs 25,000 for the police team at a press conference on Monday.

Further investigation led police to Shivram, Sunil Tripathi, Dev Vratt, Sandeep Singh, Shehrun, Rajveer and Hukum Singh, all bank mitras, who along with Gaurav were involved in the racket being run from Jalalabad area of the district. Police said Gaurav used to clone fingerprints for the bank mitras using glue-gun and adhesive that would cost him less than Rs 5 per cloning.

The IG said, "They used cloned fingerprints to spoof biometrics to carry out financial transactions by hacking bank accounts. Most of the victims are illiterate. The technique used for cloning fingerprints is available online and it is often misused. We will see if such contents can be removed."

The accused were booked under sections 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code at Jalalabad police station.


Source: timesofindia.com, latestly.com

Written by Siddhant Sharma