Gmail hacked: Man loses Rs 1 lakh in online fraud
NEW DELHI: Syncing multiple accounts online has its own risk and a man living in southeast Delhi recently learned it hard way when someone managed to hack into his Google account, which was synced to his mobile number and credit card, and made three transactions of almost Rs 1 lakh. The hackers managed to get the card details and loaded an Amazon Pay account. A senior police officer said a cheating case was registered at southeast Delhi’s Jaitpur police station on November 10 after a preliminary investigation. The money has already been moved from the Amazon account as well, a source said.
Rakesh Maurya, who works in a private firm in Faridabad, told cops that in July, he received a series of messages on his phone regarding some transactions being made from his credit card. “My bank’s customer care division called and asked me if I had carried out any transaction involving a large amount. When they told me that someone was trying to make the transactions, I told them to block the card. However, minutes later, the card was unblocked and the transactions were completed,” said the complainant.
When Maurya informed the bank about it, he was told that the transactions were performed in a secured manner and was validated by the card’s three digit CVV and a one-time-password sent to the ‘registered’ mobile number. The Amazon Pay account’s location was traced in Bengaluru.
Maurya soon found out that he had received a notification mail on his Gmail account a few hours before the first transaction informing him that someone had accessed his email account. Investigating officers said the victim’s Google account was compromised, allowing the hackers access to his phone number and other accounts and data synced there.
The complainant also received a fake call approximately 12 hours later and the caller introduced himself as a customer care representative from his bank. He had asked Maurya not to report the matter to cops, saying the bank would initiate a refund in five to seven days, an officer said. The Amazon account where the money was transferred is also suspected to have been opened on fake IDs and investigating teams are now trying to connect the money trail and locate the IP address from where the Google account was accessed.
