Reportedly, a Pakistani gang is involved in selling the credit card and debit card details of Indians online for just Rs. 500. The issue was first noticed when a banking professional Jaykishan Gupta filed a complaint that his card was used to make purchases of Rs 72,401 on August 28.
According to the Indian media, the gang involved in this activity is led by a Pakistani national, operating from Lahore. The gang sells credit cards and debits cards online with all the details linked to it including CVV number, connected phone numbers, and email IDs in exchange of Bitcoins on the dark web. Since Bitcoin and Dark Web both allows the user to not leave any footprint behind, the criminal gang used it for these malicious activities.
In India, online shopping requires an OTP (One Time Password) on most of the sites but that is not the case with international sites. You can purchase anything online without an OTP and that led to unauthorized purchases.
Reportedly the Madhya Pradesh Police Cyber Cell has busted the gang. The gang was busted when a detective posed as a customer and bought debit card details of an Indore-based woman in exchange of Bitcoins. According to the cyber cell, the investigation led to the arrest of 2 members of the gang from Mumbai.
The names of 2 members are Rajkumar Pillai and Ramprasad Nadar and they tried to purchase air tickets on their names. One of them was an employee of US-based IT service provider and the other one was a HDFC bank employee. They also took trips to Bangkok, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Dubai using the stolen cards.
According to the MP Cyber Cell, the Pakistani man involved in the scenario is Sheikh Afzal from Lahore.
Here’s what the Madhya Pradesh cyber cell SP Jitendra Singh said after the arrest:
“Our investigation revealed that the card was used to buy air tickets for one Rajkumar Pillai of Mumbai. Pillai and his accomplice Ramprasad Nadar were rounded up. Pillai was a former employee of US-based IT service provider Cognizant and Nadar was employed with HDFC bank”
He further added:
“They started off purchasing details from their gang leader, Sheikh Afzal alias Soji, a resident of Lahore, Pakistan, in exchange of Bitcoins. One Gaurav Singh of Jabalpur also facilitated their operations. The gang procured credit card data for as low as USD 8. For every fraud they committed, a share of profit went to Soji as Bitcoins,”
Madhya Pradesh cyber cell claims that it will soon arrest Gaurav as well.
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