Aadhaar card - the UPA government's ambitious scheme to protect direct cash transfers from graft and theft - may have lent itself as the latest tool in the book of international crooks
January 15, 2013
MUMBAI
Shiva Devnath
The Samta Nagar police are trying to locate a Chinese man, who allegedly hacked into the account of an engineer and managed to withdraw Rs 1.75 lakh, through six fake accounts across the country. The police suspect that the Chinese national is hand-in-glove with Indians who opened fake accounts by taking advantage of the Aadhaar-linked savings account scheme of the government.
According to the police, the crime came to light after Chinmay Das, a resident of Lokhandwala Complex in Kandivli (E), lodged an FIR on December 13, reporting that Rs 1.75 lakh has been siphoned out of his bank account and into six accounts across different cities.
Earlier, on November 15, Das had replaced his cell phone thinking it had stopped receiving signals. But his SIM card failed to work in the new handset as well. After talking to customer care, he found out that his calls had been diverted to another number. Suspicious, he asked the service provider to fix what he thought was a hitch. The process took more than three hours.
When Das switched on his phone again, he was shocked to find six messages from his bank informing him that money to the tune of Rs 1.75 lakh had been withdrawn from his account and credited into six different accounts in various other states. After his bank statement confirmed the withdrawals, he filed an FIR with the Samta Nagar police station on December 13.
Not so unique
Upon investigations, cops found that the accounts to which the money was credited belonged to persons named Babli, Bala, Talakish and Sudha, all working class people who did not know how to write English. But the savings accounts had their signatures in English. These accounts were, significantly, linked to unique identification (UID) cards.
The officers suspect that the person behind hacking Das’s account and diverting calls from his mobile number, took advantage of the Cenrte’s scheme for Adahaar card holders who can open a zero-balance account within a day.
“We traced the mobile numbers submitted to open the accounts. One numbers was traced to the Hilton Hotel in Mayur Vihar, Delhi. We visited the hotel and learnt that a Chinese man identified as Yang Quind had stayed there from October 3 to 9. He had taken an Indian SIM card by giving the address of the hotel,” said an officer from the Samta Nagar police station.
The police believe the accused is part of an international ring, which opened bogus accounts and hacked Das’ account with help of Indian associates. “We have enlisted help from the Cyber Crime Unit to see how the money was transferred,” said the officer.
