Cheats copy thumb impressions from Haryana website to withdraw money

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Chandigarh, May 12

Cyber criminals keep looking for new ways to cheat gullible people. In one such instance, hackers from Bihar copied thumb impressions from a Haryana Government website and withdrew money using Aadhaar-enabled payment system (AEPS) using POS (point of sale) machines.

As per the Faridabad police, the fraudsters accessed jamabandi.nic.in and downloaded sale deeds. They copied thumb impressions of parties who executed the deeds and created silicon thumbs. They then used these thumb impressions and other details to withdraw money.

Nitish Aggarwal, DCP, has intimated the Director, Land Records, about the matter. “Because of easy availability of data, it is recommended that only the first page of the sale deed be made visible for the general public,” said Aggarwal. He also recommended an audit of the website for plugging loopholes.

The matter came to light during the investigation of a case where a Ballabhgarh resident lost Rs 30,000 due to fraudulent withdrawals from her bank account. She had got a deed registered recently. Three persons from Purnea, Bihar, were arrested. “They know about these loopholes as they had worked at a common service centre in Bihar,” said Inspector Basant Kumar. The Director, Land Records, couldn’t be contacted.