Four hackers have been arrested for digitally shoplifting vouchers worth about Rs 92 lakh of an e-commerce company by hacking its payment gateway through data tampering, Delhi Police said.
A complaint was registered by Voucha Gram India at Hauz Khas police station alleging that its website was hacked and vouchers worth around Rs one crore were digitally stolen through data tampering of payment gateway ‘PayU‘, on December 30. A cheating case under relevant provisions of the IT Act was registered on the complaint.
A special team including ACP Rajender Pathania and SHO Hauz Khas Sanjay Sharma was formed to crack the complex cyber offence that went through voluminous data procured from various online shopping portals and loss was pegged at Rs 92 lakh.
During investigation, the team went through relevant IP addresses, e-mails and phone numbers, and managed to trace prime accused, a B-tech drop out Sunny Nehra, 23.
He was picked up from a five star hotel in Gurugram and put through sustained interrogation, said Ishwar Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South).
Information provided by him led to arrest of his three associates Azad Chaudhary, 19, Prakhar Agarwal, 19 and Tejveer Sheroran, 18. Azad is also a B.tech drop out, while Sheoran is a BCA student, he said.
All the accused including Nehra had developed online associations with hackers in the country and abroad and were involved in hacking for money by breaking weakly encrypted e-commerce portals.
Nehra had learnt from one of his hacker friends that PayU, a leading payment gateway, was suffering from vulnerability and could be tested for data tampering.
They managed to hack the online systems including the payment gateway and indulged in manipulating cash backs by enhancing their value, using same gift card again and again, placing online orders without any actual payment and making small payments, said the officer.
The digital money syphoned off by them was used on living a luxurious life and buying sophisticated proxy servers, virtual private networks, high-end laptops used by them.
The e-vouchers digitally shoplifted by the accused were spent also in five star hotels, air tickets and renting expensive cars to go to parties and hotels with their girl friends, he said.
Police has recovered a laptop used for high level programming, with 256 GB RAM and capable of supporting hacking software, and latest I-phones and I-pads.
Investigation in the case is progressing with analysis of data and logs of recovered equipment to detect and establish other cyber crimes and digital shoplifting committed by the gang, the officer added.
