How an inter-state racket of fraudsters used Darknet to hack bank accounts

The Madhya Pradesh cyber cell busted an inter-state racket of fraudsters who hacked into people's bank accounts using information from the 'Darknet' - a computer network which has restricted access and is available only to a select few.

The Police arrested five persons in a case of ATM fraud after an assistant professor from Indore filed a complaint stating Rs 16,000 were fraudulently withdrawn from her account, a report in The Times of India said.

The kingping of the fraud, Deepak, is still at large.


Modus Operandi
One of the persons arrested in the fraud, Pranjal, who happens to be the son of a senior bureaucrat, told the police that the kingpin, Deepak, who ran the racket, introduced him to Darknet from where he accessed the bank and credit card details of people using bitcoin. With that information, he transferred money from their accounts.

Deepak had a network of agents and sub-agents across the country who offered services like airtickets, bill payments. Tickets were sometimes offered at steep discounts to lure customers. The agents used the money from the hacked accounts to pay for the services and pocketed the amount taken from the customers. After charging commission, these agents used to convert rest of the money into bitcoins which would reach Deepak, thereby eliminating the money trail. The money transfer happened through e-wallets using forged identities.

The agents used to get a hefty amount as commission and spent that money on a luxurious lifestyle. Out of the five who have been arrested in the case, three belong to affluent families.

Commenting on the scale of the fraud, Rajesh Bhadoria, SP, said,"So far Rs 62 lakh fraud has been traced to the accused. The racket could be worth crores."