AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 9844 - Digital Wallet Loophole Inspires 5 Engineering Students To Steal Rs 8.6 Crore In Kolkata

In 2009, I became extremely concerned with the concept of Unique Identity for various reasons. Connected with many like minded highly educated people who were all concerned.

On 18th May 2010, I started this Blog to capture anything and everything I came across on the topic. This blog with its million hits is a testament to my concerns about loss of privacy and fear of the ID being misused and possible Criminal activities it could lead to.

In 2017 the Supreme Court of India gave its verdict after one of the longest hearings on any issue. I did my bit and appealed to the Supreme Court Judges too through an On Line Petition.

In 2019 the Aadhaar Legislation has been revised and passed by the two houses of the Parliament of India making it Legal. I am no Legal Eagle so my Opinion carries no weight except with people opposed to the very concept.

In 2019, this Blog now just captures on a Daily Basis list of Articles Published on anything to do with Aadhaar as obtained from Daily Google Searches and nothing more. Cannot burn the midnight candle any longer.

"In Matters of Conscience, the Law of Majority has no place"- Mahatma Gandhi

Ram Krishnaswamy

Sydney, Australia.

Aadhaar

The UIDAI has taken two successive governments in India and the entire world for a ride. It identifies nothing. It is not unique. The entire UID data has never been verified and audited. The UID cannot be used for governance, financial databases or anything. It’s use is the biggest threat to national security since independence. – Anupam Saraph 2018

When I opposed Aadhaar in 2010 , I was called a BJP stooge. In 2016 I am still opposing Aadhaar for the same reasons and I am told I am a Congress die hard. No one wants to see why I oppose Aadhaar as it is too difficult. Plus Aadhaar is FREE so why not get one ? Ram Krishnaswamy

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.-Mahatma Gandhi

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.Mahatma Gandhi

“The invasion of privacy is of no consequence because privacy is not a fundamental right and has no meaning under Article 21. The right to privacy is not a guaranteed under the constitution, because privacy is not a fundamental right.” Article 21 of the Indian constitution refers to the right to life and liberty -Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi

“There is merit in the complaints. You are unwittingly allowing snooping, harassment and commercial exploitation. The information about an individual obtained by the UIDAI while issuing an Aadhaar card shall not be used for any other purpose, save as above, except as may be directed by a court for the purpose of criminal investigation.”-A three judge bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar said in an interim order.

Legal scholar Usha Ramanathan describes UID as an inverse of sunshine laws like the Right to Information. While the RTI makes the state transparent to the citizen, the UID does the inverse: it makes the citizen transparent to the state, she says.

Good idea gone bad
I have written earlier that UID/Aadhaar was a poorly designed, unreliable and expensive solution to the really good idea of providing national identification for over a billion Indians. My petition contends that UID in its current form violates the right to privacy of a citizen, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. This is because sensitive biometric and demographic information of citizens are with enrolment agencies, registrars and sub-registrars who have no legal liability for any misuse of this data. This petition has opened up the larger discussion on privacy rights for Indians. The current Article 21 interpretation by the Supreme Court was done decades ago, before the advent of internet and today’s technology and all the new privacy challenges that have arisen as a consequence.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP Rajya Sabha

“What is Aadhaar? There is enormous confusion. That Aadhaar will identify people who are entitled for subsidy. No. Aadhaar doesn’t determine who is eligible and who isn’t,” Jairam Ramesh

But Aadhaar has been mythologised during the previous government by its creators into some technology super force that will transform governance in a miraculous manner. I even read an article recently that compared Aadhaar to some revolution and quoted a 1930s historian, Will Durant.Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajya Sabha MP

“I know you will say that it is not mandatory. But, it is compulsorily mandatorily voluntary,” Jairam Ramesh, Rajya Saba April 2017.

August 24, 2017: The nine-judge Constitution Bench rules that right to privacy is “intrinsic to life and liberty”and is inherently protected under the various fundamental freedoms enshrined under Part III of the Indian Constitution

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the World; indeed it's the only thing that ever has"

“Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” -Edward Snowden

In the Supreme Court, Meenakshi Arora, one of the senior counsel in the case, compared it to living under a general, perpetual, nation-wide criminal warrant.

Had never thought of it that way, but living in the Aadhaar universe is like living in a prison. All of us are treated like criminals with barely any rights or recourse and gatekeepers have absolute power on you and your life.

Announcing the launch of the # BreakAadhaarChainscampaign, culminating with events in multiple cities on 12th Jan. This is the last opportunity to make your voice heard before the Supreme Court hearings start on 17th Jan 2018. In collaboration with @no2uidand@rozi_roti.

UIDAI's security seems to be founded on four time tested pillars of security idiocy

1) Denial

2) Issue fiats and point finger

3) Shoot messenger

4) Bury head in sand.

God Save India

Thursday, April 14, 2016

9844 - Digital Wallet Loophole Inspires 5 Engineering Students To Steal Rs 8.6 Crore In Kolkata - Trak.In

Digital Wallet Loophole Inspires 5 Engineering Students To Steal Rs 8.6 Crore In Kolkata

We have repeatedly stated that using e-wallets of digital wallets in India is still insecure and full of security loopholes which can be exploited by hackers and anti-social elements, anytime. Money from such e-wallets are vanished without any trace, and unauthorized pizza payments are made all of a sudden.

In yet another instance of such e-robbery which should be a wake up call for banks and e-wallet firms, 5 engineering students from Kolkata were able to siphon off Rs 8.6 crore using a simple loophole in one of the digital wallets launched by a private bank.

This e-robbery continued for several months, before bank officials discovered this heist and promptly informed the police who arrested these students.

The Loophole & The Rs 8.6 Crore E-Robbery

Last December, one of the prominent private banks launched their own digital wallets, and enabled wallet-to-wallet cash transfer facility for their customers.

However, the bank wasn’t aware of a security loophole in this whole process: In case the recipient’s Internet connection is switched off, then the money is not debited from the sender’s bank account; but the bank pays the money.

Say Jack is sending Rs 1000 to Alice using this digital wallet. Now, Alice’s Internet connection on mobile is switched off when Jack sends the money. In that case, when Alice switches on her mobile, the bank will pay Rs 1000 to her and no cash would be debited from jack’s account.

This major security flaw was caught by an engineering student called Jewel Rana, who formed a gang of 5 other students, and then started exploiting it for quick cash. Within 4 months, Rs 8.6 crore were robbed from the bank.

Fault Lies In Our System As Well

While investigating the case, police were stunned to find that these students were able to procure thousands of fake SIM cards, which were used to open fake bank accounts, then digital wallets to siphon off the money.

From the border district of Murshidabad, Jewel and his gang were able to get thousands of pre-activated SIM cards, which were used to open 2000 bank accounts, and which in turn were used to open 18,000 digital wallets. These wallets were then used to siphon off money from the bank.

Joint CP (crime) Debashish Boral said, “Jewel was known to Habibur Rehman, a dealer of a mobile service provider in Murshidabad. While Jewel was the brain of the gang with the college students arranging the wallet transactions, the unaccounted and unverified SIM cards were all arranged by Habibur’s men,”

Innocent villagers from the nearby cities were given incentives to open bank account using the fake SIM cards; and these formed the base of the whole scam.

We had earlier reported how Delhi Police wants to impose a fine of Rs 1 crore on those telecom firms which doesn’t verify their customers before giving SIM cards; and this is again one classic example of how fake identity and money can do wonders in India.

Some other examples of scams and e-robbery using digital wallets:

Aadhar Card and Digital Wallets used to scam people

Digital Wallets being used to transfer stolen money

Bank officials steal money from Axis Bank, SBI digital wallets

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