Shahjahanpur, February 23: Police in Uttar Pradesh's Shahjahanpur have arrested a 26-year-old man, identified as Gaurav, who allegedly hacked nearly 500 bank accounts by learning fingerprint cloning online. Gaurav, police said, learnt cloning fingerprints using glue-gun and adhesive through the internet and colluded with bank mitras and withdrew money from bank accounts the beneficiaries of various government schemes. Sextortion Racket Busted by Mumbai Police, Several MLAs, MPs, Journalists Made To Watch Porn and Later Blackmailed: Report.

An investigation was launched after police received repeated complaints from several beneficiaries that they had not received money from the government into their bank accounts. The crime branch took over the probe and found that the money was credited into the beneficiaries' accounts, but it was later withdrawn through Jan Suvidha Kendras being run by bank mitras, according to a report by TOI. UP ATS Arrests Chinese National for ‘Illegal' Transfer of Funds.

Further investigation led police to Shivram, Sunil Tripathi, Dev Vratt, Sandeep Singh, Shehrun, Rajveer and Hukum Singh, all bank mitras, who along with Gaurav were involved in the racket being run from Jalalabad area of the district. Police said Gaurav used to clone fingerprints for the bank mitras using glue-gun and adhesive that would cost him less than Rs 5 per cloning.

"They used cloned fingerprints to spoof biometrics to carry out financial transactions by hacking bank accounts. Most of the victims are illiterate. The technique used for cloning fingerprints is available online and it is often misused. We will see if such contents can be removed," IG Rajesh Pandey was quoted as saying.

Five accused - Gaurav, Shivram, Sunil Tripathi, Dev Vratt and Sandeep Singh - have been arrested by the police. They have been charged under sections 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 ( using as genuine a forged 1[document or electronic record) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code. Search for other accused is underway.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 23, 2021 12:26 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).