Beware of fraudsters while giving your thumb imprints for online or offline purchases. Your thumb impressions can be stolen by the cybercriminals on prowl to siphon off money through Aadhaar-enabled payment system (AEPS) by cloning fingerprints.
Uttar Pradesh Police, in coordination with the cyber cell department, has busted an inter-state cybercriminal gang from Bhadohi district and recovered 194 ‘thumb clones’ from their possession.
The case
Being called as one of the most sensational cases of cybercrime, the investigating officers said they never thought that it was just a tip of the iceberg. “One case was registered by Mishrilal Kumar, a resident of Hridaypatti village of Bhadohi district, while another was filed by Bindu Singh, a resident of Keertipur village of Bhadohi,” said Rajesh Bharti, additional superintendent of police.
Bharti said further investigation revealed that in both the cases, fake thumbprints were allegedly used to withdraw money.
194 Thumb Impressions Recovered
The two men – Rishi Raj Singh from Saraon in Prayagraj and Rohit Kumar from Mau – were arrested on May 2 for being alleged members of an inter-state gang of cybercriminals. The police recovered a total of 194 thumb impressions from them, tagged with Aadhaar number and bank account number and name. Machines and equipment used for making fingerprint clone-poly stamper machine, printer machine, laptop, two biometric machines with OTG (on the go) adapter, five MOPS (multi option payment system), 5 ATM cards, three mobiles, a polymer and image darkener have also been recovered from their possession.
‘Copy Thumb Impressions on Butter Paper’
Bharti said the duo have been found cloning thumb impressions from sale deeds available on various websites and siphoning money from bank accounts linked with Aadhaar numbers through point of sale (PoS) machines. “It was also found that the fraudsters were found withdrawing money by forging biometric thumb impressions and abusing the Aadhaar-enabled payment system. They copy thumb impressions on butter paper from various websites to create duplicate silicon thumbs, said Bharti.
‘Learnt Thumb Cloning on YouTube’
What came out to be a real shocker for the Bhadohi Police was the fact that the duo learnt thumb cloning from the videos available on YouTube. The police said there are thousands of channels that run step-by-step tutorials to clone fingerprints. They also urged the government to ban YouTube channels that are promoting such content.
Over 6,000 Cases of Cybercrime Reported in UP
The UP Police breakthrough, however, has raised a serious concern over the safety of personal data available on government websites. According to the records with the UP Police, more than 6,000 cases of cyber frauds have been registered so far in UP. Though there is no proper segregation but as per the rough estimate, officials said more than 150 cases were related to AEPS. “Cases of AEPS are on the rise. It has been observed that people, especially in the rural pockets, fell soft targets to these cyber ‘thug’ gangs, who make clones of the thumb impressions of the target to make withdrawals from their accounts, using Aadhaar-enabled payment system. There are more than 100 such cases that have been reported from Uttar Pradesh. We often carry out random checks of the ‘Jan Suvidha Kendra; and create awareness programmes in the rural pockets in order to create awareness among the people”, said Dr Triveni Singh, SP Cyber Crime.
What are Experts Saying?
When cases of financial frauds are on the rise, experts chime in on how to keep personal data safe. According to the Rakshit Tandon, a cybersecurity expert, people should switch off the option of biometrics from their account by logging on to the official UIDAI website, making it safe from the cyber frauds. Tandon further said people should remain vigilant, especially during late night as such frauds generally get active at night. People should make sure that they immediately inform the police if they came across any such unauthorised withdrawals in order to minimise the reaction time.
MHA Writes States to Check Frauds
The home ministry too had written to states and Union territories (UTs) recently flagging concerns about the “misuse” of the AePS by cybercriminals to commit financial fraud. The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) — the MHA’s nodal agency to tackle matters related to cybercrime — had stated that cybercriminals are “cloning” the biometric data of Aadhaar users uploaded on states’ registry websites that host sale deeds and agreements. This data is “cloned” with the intention of carrying out unauthorised withdrawals through AePS. The agency had asked the state and UT governments to direct their revenue and registration departments to “mask” the fingerprints on documents while uploading them on the registry websites.
In the backdrop of the ongoing debate over the safety of the personal data, which kicked off after the Bhadohi Police busted an inter-state gang of cyber criminals, the UP Police say more arrests in the case may further help them in investigation and could lead to the gangs of similar nature active in other states.
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