13851 - Institutes misused Aadhaar to claim SC scholarships: Tribune India

Punjab

Posted at: Aug 9, 2018, 1:27 AM; last updated: Aug 9, 2018, 1:30 AM (IST)

Institutes misused Aadhaar to claim SC scholarships: CAG

Sample audit points out Rs 15.6-crore scam in six districts

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Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 8

An audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has blown the lid off a scam in the disbursement of SC post-matric scholarships by misusing Aadhaar cards of students.

A sample data analysis of 6,29,668 scholarship claims made by educational institutions in Punjab’s six districts – Bathinda, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Moga, Patiala and Muktsar — has revealed that the Aadhaar cards of 3,275 students were used more than once under different student IDs to claim scholarship amount of Rs 15.63 crore. The claims were made by the institutions between 2015 and 2017. In the audit report, which was tabled in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, the CAG has pointed out lack of input validation control in the application software to reject more than one entry from the same student in the same academic year and course, resulting in repeated disbursement of scholarships.

Punjab is one of the five states where the performance audit of the SC scholarship scheme was carried out by the CAG for the period from April 2012 to March 2017.

To study inadmissible claims of scholarship, the CAG picked details of 85,166 beneficiaries in Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Moga and Patiala, revealing that particulars of 115 SC students appeared twice, indicating that the students as well as the institutions claimed fee and maintenance allowance of Rs 59 lakh by submitting false statements.

In a particular case, Hi-Tech Polytechnic, Bathinda, claimed fee and allowance of 479 students against 398 students registered with the department portal during 2015-16. Thus, the institute was paid Rs 26 lakh against 81 non-existing students.

Anomalies to the fore

• The CAG analysed 6,29,668 scholarship claims made by educational institutions in Bathinda, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Moga, Patiala and Muktsar.
• It found that the Aadhaar cards of 3,275 students were used multiple times to claim scholarship amount of Rs 15.63 crore.
• The claims were made by the institutions between 2015 and 2017.

13738 - Job aspirants duped of Rs 3.5 crore in Ghaziabad, three arrested - TNN

Job aspirants duped of Rs 3.5 crore in Ghaziabad, three arrested

Shafaque Alam | TNN | Jun 23, 2018, 02:30 IST

NOIDA:Three men were arrested from Kavi Nagar in Ghaziabad on Friday for allegedly cheating several job seekers of around Rs 3.5 crore in the last two years. The accused have been identified as Preetam Singh (45), a resident of Amroha; Ikramuddin (40) and Dalveer Singh (22), residents of Moradabad.

Raj Kumar Mishra, DSP Noida-STF, said police raided a house in Kavi Nagar and arrested the three accused after receiving information about the gang operating in the area. The STF team recovered 48 debit cards, 38 passbooks, 24 SIM cards, 18 letter pads, 16 mobile phones, 15 cheque books, 12 voter identity cards, 11 Aadhaar cards, 10 PAN cards, seven Paytm cards and Rs 29,200 cash.

During interrogation, Preetam Singh, the mastermind of the racket, said he had completed BSc and BPEd from Amroha but was unemployed for several years. He also applied for Indian Navy but failed the medical examination. He then came up with the plot to cheat jobseekers and make money two years ago. 

LATEST COMMENT

now a days these types of job rackets are very prevelant 

they duped the job seekers and loot there money

Bhupin Kumar

The accused used to contact Naukri.com posing as representative of firms such as Idea International, Entomace Technology India Pvt Ltd, Nigus Microsoft Pvt Ltd, Maruti Solutions Pvt Ltd, etc and offered jobs. He would access job seekers’ data and send them fake interview letters for leading companies. He and his aides demanded that job seekers pay Rs 10,000 or Rs 20,000, sometimes even Rs 50,000, through Paytm to schedule interviews.

Ikramuddin was assigned to provide SIM cards used to make calls to victims. He received Rs 500 for every SIM card he provided. Dalveer used to provide fake documents to open bank accounts. The accused would change the mobile number once a job seeker paid up. “We have registered a case against them under sections 420, 504 and 506 of IPC. They were produced in court and sent to judicial custody,” Mishra said.

13737 - Cyber fraudster blocks Mumbai woman’s SIM, withdraws ₹73,100 from her account - Hindustan Times

Cyber fraudster blocks Mumbai woman’s SIM, withdraws ₹73,100 from her account

Police said such cases are on the rise, wherein the criminal changes mobile phone details in the victim’s bank records to reflect his own number.

MUMBAI Updated: Jun 23, 2018 13:40 Ist

Faisal Tandel  Hindustan Times

The accused called her and shared a 19-digit SIM number with her.(HT Photo/Representational Image )

A 33-year-old woman from Tilak Nagar was duped of Rs73,100 by a cyber-criminal, who withdrew money from her account by blocking her SIM card.

The complainant, Rachita S Banote, 33, told police that on April 1, she received a call from the fraudster, who posed as an executive of a mobile network service provider. He asked her to upgrade her SIM.

When she told him that she had already upgraded it and also linked her Aadhaar card, the accused told her that the company had changed the version, and if she did not get upgrade it, the SIM would be blocked.

In order to prevent her number from being blocked, the man shared a 19-digit SIM number and asked Banote to message it to 121. He said that her number would be switched off for at least 24 hours for the process to upgrade.

“When the phone didn’t turn on after 24 hours, she approached the service provider. However, they claimed that it was a fake call and she should crosscheck it,” said Sagar Kalekar, sub-inspector, Tilak Nagar police station.

Kalekar said that on April 3, she tried logging into her bank account to check the transactions, but she could not. “On April 4, she approached the bank for help and saw that there were two separate transactions of Rs25,000 and Rs23,100. The accused used the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) to withdraw money from her account,” said Kalekar. The bank was investigating the matter for almost 45 days, for which the police had to put the case on hold. The bank said that it cannot help the woman or refund the amount. “We had registered a case on June 14 under section 419 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 66 (c) and 66 (d) of the Information Technology Act. Further investigation is on,” said SD Kale, police inspector, Tilak Nagar police station. The police claim that such cases have increased in recent times, where the fraudster changes the mobile phone details in bank records to reflect his own contact number. He then uses the UPI service to withdraw money, which is quite new.

13585 - 164 Aadhaar-Related Frauds Reported Since 2011, Most In 2018: New Database - Bloomberg Quint

164 Aadhaar-Related Frauds Reported Since 2011, Most In 2018: New Database

Alison Saldanha, IndiaSpend @bexsaldanha
23 May 2018, 3:29 PM23 May 2018, 3:29 PM

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In Jan. 2018, eight persons were arrested in Chandigarh for purchasing expensive mobile phones with fraudulent loans secured using fake Aadhaar cards. The accused, among whom were former bankers and employees of a finance company, had placed their own photographs on others’ Aadhaar cards to secure bank loans, and were booked for cheating, fraud, forgery and criminal conspiracy under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.

This is just one among the 73 incidents of misuse of the Unique Identity Authority of India’s Aadhaar programme that have been reported in the English-language media so far this year (up to May 7, 2018). This averages nearly four incidents each week, as per a new database created by independent researchers Anmol Somanchi and Vipul Paikra.

Of these, 52 cases involved fake or forged Aadhaar numbers–coming up with entirely new Aadhaar enrolment based on fake details, or forging existing cards by replacing certain details like photographs–and 21 involved Aadhaar-related banking frauds.

In the six years since the launch of the Aadhaar programme in Sep. 2011, 164 cases of forged or fake Aadhaar numbers and Aadhaar-related banking frauds have been reported in the English-language media, the databasenoted. These include 123 cases of fake or forged Aadhaar numbers or cards and 41 cases of Aadhaar-related banking fraud.

Also Read: Aadhaar Hearing Concludes In Supreme Court: Here’s What Was Argued Over 38 Days

“This database does not include the whole gamut of reported incidents of Aadhaar-related fraud and forgery,” Somanchi told IndiaSpend. “We had initially included Hindi reports and found more such incidents. However, since we couldn’t include all other regional languages we restricted the database to English news reports.”

Several attempts to reach out to the Unique Identification Authority of India for comment on the findings of thedatabase met with no response. On April 30, 2018, IndiaSpend reached out to the office of the chief executive officer of UIDAI via email. On May 2, 2018, we reached out again and were told by the communications team that UIDAI would get back to us. On May 3, 2018, IndiaSpend reached out a third time, telephonically. On May 8, 2018, we sent out a third email.

The story will be updated with the Authority’s response when we receive one.

Lack Of Clarity

“The ambiguity around Aadhaar has led to an increasing number of cases where citizens are swindled of their money,” Somanchi said. “India is still grappling with limited financial, technological literacy–people aren’t sure of what they should or should not share and the authorities have failed to provide that clarity.”

The government has been speaking “with a forked tongue” in this regard, Somanchi said, adding, “On one hand they insist the uniqueness of the Aadhaar number prevents duplicity and is an in-built layer of security–on the other hand they advise caution on sharing of Aadhaar details. So what should citizens believe?”

Also Read: Any ID Proof Sufficient For New Mobile SIM But Aadhaar Linkage Must Later

As of April 2018, more than 1.2 billion Indians–99.7 percent of the population–had enrolled under the programme. The Aadhaar database, which the government is keen to integrate with policy, regulation and benefits-transfer programmes, includes fingerprints, iris scans and demographic details of every enrolled individual. From July 1, 2018, the system will also include facial recognition features for identity authentication.

One-Third Cases Involve Multiple UID Numbers

Among cases of fake or forged Aadhaar numbers or cards, 52 of the 123 reported incidents (42 percent) involved forgery of only Aadhaar details, according to the database.

In at least 38 cases (31 percent), other documents such as permanent account number–a unique 10-digit alphanumeric identity allotted to taxpayers by the income tax department–driver’s license and voter identity card were also forged or faked, the database showed.

In a recent case of forgery reported from Mumbai, 40 bank accounts had been opened using forged documents including Aadhaar, as noted in the Hindustan Times report of March 31, 2018, that is included in the database. The accused–who had acquired eye and finger scanners to produce fake Aadhaar numbers–would charge Rs 2,000 to make a fake Aadhaar card, Rs 800 to 1,000 for a fake PAN card, Rs 10,000 for a fake driver’s license and Rs 1,000 for a fake voter identity card, the report said.

Also Read: UIDAI Brings Updated QR Code For Offline Aadhaar Verification

Information on how many documents were forged was unavailable for 33 or 27% of cases, the database noted.

More than a third (43) of the fake or forged Aadhaar card/number cases involved forgery of multiple Aadhaar numbers, which researcher Somanchi has described in the database as an “Aadhaar racket”. These include five cases where Aadhaar numbers have been counterfeited to misuse the public distribution system, under which subsidised foodgrain and non-food items are provided to underprivileged citizens across the country.

In Bengaluru, for instance, the Karnataka state food and civil supplies department had discovered large-scale use of fake Aadhaar numbers linked to bogus below-poverty-line ration cards to siphon off subsidised foodgrain distributed under the state’s Anna Bhagya scheme, according to this Deccan Chronicle report from Oct. 13, 2016, listed in the database.

Controversies, Contestations
However, Aadhaar-related hiccups are far fewer than other problems holding up beneficiaries’ access to PDS, the State of Aadhaar Report 2017-18 by philanthropic investment firm Omidyar Network, released on May 17, 2018, showed. Between Sep. and Dec. 2017, about 2 million PDS beneficiaries in rural Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal, accounting for 0.8 percent, 2.2 percent or 0.8 percent of all PDS beneficiaries, respectively, were found excluded from the states’ PDS programmes due to Aadhaar-related factors. However, a much larger proportion of beneficiaries, 6.5 percent, were excluded due to non-Aadhaar factors (such as non-availability of ration), the report said.

From 2014-15 to 2017-18, Aadhaar’s direct benefit transfer system as well as digitisation and other initiatives had enabled the government to detect and delete 27.5 million fake and duplicate ration cards, saving Rs 16,792 crore in the PDS programme, the report added.

Also Read: World's Largest ID Database Exposed by India Government Errors

However, the government did not provide data to back this claim. It also did not clarify how the deletions were counted, if they included genuine beneficiaries caught up in the system’s technical snags, and how Aadhaar specifically contributed to deletion of fakes, the report said.

Eliminating identity corruption has been one of the primary aims of the Aadhaar programme, but some experts believe Aadhaar integration has led to no significant gains for welfare programmes, as economist Reetika Khera said in this study published in the Economic & Political Weekly in Dec. 2017.

Aadhaar-linking has facilitated over-centralisation of administrative controls, Khera argued in her study. “If a person does not get authenticated, there is no easy or accessible redress available… adding a sense of disempowerment,” she said. Further, privileging Aadhaar over other technologies that had a proven track record at improving administration displaced efforts to scale those up, she said.

“The evidence increasingly suggests quantity fraud more than identity or eligibility fraud is the main problem in welfare corruption,” Somanchi told IndiaSpend. “Despite Aadhaar, there are still instances of individuals getting more or less than the allotted amount of foodgrains and other rations under the PDS and this issue remains unaddressed.”

Aadhaar rackets aside, 19 cases of illegal migrants faking or forging Aadhaar identities to reside in India have also been reported, the database noted. In four cases, Aadhaar numbers were forged to fraudulently obtain bank loans. In two cases, terrorists had procured fake/forged Aadhaar numbers to legitimise their stay in the country.

The Aadhaar programme has always been controversial, particularly since the government’s 2016 move to compulsorily link several government services and benefits with Aadhaar, as IndiaSpend reported on March 31, 2017. The Supreme Court has just finished hearing a bunch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Aadhaar–the second-longest oral hearing in the history of the top court–and is likely to announce a verdict in July or August, DNA reported on May 11, 2018.


Also Read: Aadhaar Law Is Just, Fair And Reasonable: Centre To Supreme Court

At one of the hearings, Attorney General K.K. Venugopal, appearing for the state, argued that the programme would prevent bank fraud, illegal financial transactions, and the misuse of telecommunication networks by terrorists, The Financial Express had reported on April 5, 2018.

However, the apex court observed that Aadhaar could do little to stop banking fraud and questioned the government’s move to demand that the entire population of the country link their mobile phones with Aadhaar “just to catch a few terrorists”, the Financial Express report said.

“This is a fundamental misunderstanding of what causes terrorism or banking frauds,” Somanchi said. “Serving up Aadhaar as a panacea for all problems is taking it too far. A socio-economic problem such as terrorism can’t be solved with a technological fix like Aadhaar–assigning sophisticated numbers to individuals isn’t a crime deterrent.”

Further, there have been cases where individuals have been unable to use their Aadhaar cards as proof of identity because their biometric data did not match with the records.

At a recent court hearing, UIDAI admitted that 6 percent of Aadhaar authentication requests using fingerprints (927,123 transactions) are known to fail, and 8.5 percent (36.9 million transactions) using iris scans, LiveLawreported on April 3, 2018.

In all, Aadhaar-based biometric authentication for accessing government services have been recorded as failed 12 percent of the time, UIDAI told the court, according to this report in TheQuinton March 29, 2018. It denied, however, that this meant exclusion from or denial of subsidies or benefits, saying the authentication requesting agency is supposed to use alternative means of identification in such cases, the LiveLaw report said.

Combined with the findings of the database, UIDAI’s submissions in court suggest neither are Aadhaar biometrics reliable, nor are the cards infallible, Somanchi said.

(Saldanha is an assistant editor with IndiaSpend. Manpreet Singh, an intern with IndiaSpend and a graduate student at the Symbiosis School of Economics, Pune, contributed to the story.)

This article has been published in arrangement with IndiaSpend.
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13246 - Indore: Youth duped of Rs 40,000 in name of linking Aadhaar to bank account - Free Press Journal

Indore: Youth duped of Rs 40,000 in name of linking Aadhaar to bank account

— By FPJ Bureau | Apr 09, 2018 08:46 am

Indore: A conman posing as manager of Reserve Bank of India duped a person of Rs 40,000 in the name of linking Aadhaar with his bank account on Saturday. The victim lodged a complaint with MIG police when he received a SMS of money debit from his bank account.

Nehru Nagar resident Ritik Jain lodged a complaint that he had received a phone call from an unidentified number in which a person introduced himself as the manager of RBI and asked to link his Aadhaar number with bank account. Jain first refused to give Aadhaar detail but the conman warned him and said that it is mandatory to link Aadhaar after which the accused told him to tell last three digit of his Aadhaar.

Jain informed the police that after giving three digit of his Aadhaar to the conman, a SMS was received that Rs 40,200 has been deducted from the account. He also tried to contact the persons but his mobile number was switched off. The bank officials had informed Jain that money from his account was spent on online shopping. Police are trying to trace the accused on the basis of the mobile number given by the complainant.

12723 - How linking his mobile SIM with Aadhaar cost a man Rs 1,10,000 - Gadgets Now

How linking his mobile SIM with Aadhaar cost a man Rs 1,10,000

Gadgets Now Bureau | Jan 12, 2018, 01.24PM IST

A case of man being duped of Rs 1,10,000 has come forward in Jaipur city when he tried to link his Aadhaar card with his mobile number. 

According to a report from Patrika, SK Brijwani, a resident of Janta Store, Bapu Nagar was asked by a youth to link mobile number with Aadhaar card, but instead deactivated his SIM and issued him a new one. Using his old SIM, the youth withdrew Rs 1,10,000 from his bank account. Brijwani got to know about the fraud when he went to the bank and saw the entry of the withdrawal.

Now link your mobile number to Aadhaar sitting at home: Here's how

All mobile users need to link their Aadhaar cards with mobile SIM cards by February 6, 2018, as per a government directive. For the ease of mobile phone subscribers, the government has announced some new ways to link mobile SIMs with Aadhaar (called reverification of SIMs). These new mechanisms have come into effect from yesterday (December 1). Courtesy these new linking methods, mobile users no longer need to visit stores of their telecom service provider and can avail OTP-based service to link their 12-digit Aadhaar with mobile number. In a tweet, UIDAI said that from Dec 1 2017, mobile subscribers can also choose to verify their mobile SIM with Aadhaar without giving their biometrics to telecom service providers. There are two ways to do this: One, subscribers can now do the verification process online (on telecom service provider's website). Two, Aadhaar verification can also be done using telco's voice-based IVR helpline. Here's a step-by-step method of how to go about these two processes

1. Mobile subscribers need to enter their mobile number (the one they want to verify) on telecom service provider's (says Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Jio or Idea) website.

2. The telecom service provider (TSP) will then send an OTP (one-time password) on the mobile number entered on the website. The mobile subscriber then needs to submit the same on the website.

3. A 'consent message' will then appear on the website. The subscriber then needs to enter his/her Aadhaar number after properly checking the 'consent box'.

4. The telecom service provider will then send an OTP request to UIDAI.

5. If there is any mobile number registered with that Aadhaar number, the mobile subscriber will receive the OTP on it.

6. The subscriber will also receive a 'consent message' about his e-KYC details from UIDAI. He/she needs to enter the OTP after accepting the required terms and conditions.

7. Once accepted, the authentication and confirmation will then be sent to the mobile subscriber saying that the number has been re-verified with the related Aadhaar number.

The second method is via telecom service provider's voice-based IVR helpline.

Here the first step is: Mobile subscribers need to call on their respective telecom service providers IVR number using the mobile phone number that they want to re-verify.

2. The telecom service provider's IVR will play the 'consent message' and ask the subscriber to provide his/her mobile number.

3. An OTP request will then be sent to the UIDAI to verify the Aadhaar number linked to that account.

4. OTP message will appear on the mobile number linked to the respective Aadhaar card. A 'consent message' will again be played on IVR.

5. The mobile subscriber will have to share the OTP received on IVR. If correct, the subscriber's e-KYC details will be fetched from UIDAI.

6. If the e-KYC details fetched are correct, successful 'mobile re-verification' message will appear on IVR. An SMS notification too will be received on the subscriber’s mobile number.

Brijwani had received a call asking him that to link his mobile number with his Aadhaar card and failing to do so will lead to be deactivation of his SIM. After that, he received an SMS asking him to send the SIM to the service centre. His SIM stopped working after he received this message. Next day, when he went to the bank he got know about the missing money.

The case was registered at Gandhi Nagar police station.

TOP COMMENT

Offender, India, 4 hours ago

Stupid bhakts keep singing the tune that only "corrupt, black money, antinationals, sickulars" are complaining about aadhar, and that "the honest have nothing to fear". I hope m... Read More

To remind the readers, as per the government directive, all mobile users need to link their Aadhaar cards with mobile SIM cards by March 31. The country's apex Supreme Court raised security concerns about the process. Soon after that, there were complaints that it was getting difficult to go through the process by visiting the customer care centres of mobile companies. Over 50 crore subscribers have still to get their numbers confirmed.

After this, the government had announced some new ways to link mobile SIMs with Aadhaar for the ease of mobile phone subscribers. 

For the latest news, tech news, breaking news headlines and live updates checkout Gadgetsnow.com

10274 - SPAMMED WITH SNAIL MAIL, MAN UNCOVERS AADHAAR CARD FRAUD - Mumbai Mirror

SPAMMED WITH SNAIL MAIL, MAN UNCOVERS AADHAAR CARD FRAUD

By Nazia Sayed, Mumbai Mirror | Jul 24, 2016, 12.35 AM IST

A 27-year-old Bandra resident exposed a fake Aadhaar card scam after letters addressed to an unknown person kept coming to his house. Rehan Bellare turned a sleuth to gather information about fraud before asking his father to approach the police. 

The police said fraudsters were applying for Aadhaar cards giving Bellare's address and would collect the letters from the post office as soon they were returned by Bellare. 

According to the Khar police, Bellare, a resident of Sita Kunj on the 36th Road in Bandra West, got a few letters meant for someone else in April and promptly returned them. When it happened again in May, Bellare grew suspicious. 

The postman told Bellare that the letters returned by him were being collected from the post office by some locals. "I was not sure if the information was true. I decided to check for myself and follow the trail of these letters. Soon I learnt that some beggars from my neighbourhood were collecting them," said Bellare. 

Bellare, who runs an online garments business, said he initially thought there was some goof-up regarding the address. "But when I visited the post office and made enquiries, things became clearer." 

Initially, the postal staff was not keen to divulge the content of the mails, but they relented later. "I convinced them that I was being harassed by these frequent letters and needed to get to the bottom of it." 

Bellare said he was shocked when he was shown the contents of the envelopes. "They were photocopies of an Aadhaar card. While the address was mine, it belonged a person identified as Thakur. I immediately recognised the person on the letter. He was a beggar who stayed near my house." 

The young man then went on to file an RTI application seeking more information about the fake Aadhaar card with his address on it. But the officials refused to divulge any information saying it was confidential. 

"I then tweeted the photo of the Aadhaar card on the Mumbai police's Twitter handle. I was asked to approach the Khar police." His father, Ishwar, submitted a complaint on Friday. 

Senior Inspector Ramchandra Jadhav said, "We have received a complaint and have started an inquiry into the matter."