STF nabs hacker who sold data of consumers to cyber thugs linked in Rs 200-crore fraud

A hacker allegedly involved in providing personal data of crores of customers, who have been duped by several cyber gangs of at least Rs 200 crore, has been arrested, the Special Task Force of the Uttar Pradesh Police said on Thursday.

Accused Prashant Garg, who was picked up by the STF from his residence in New Arya Nagar of Ghaziabad on Wednesday night, had changed his looks and stopped using mobile phone in order to evade arrest, the officials said.

Over the last two years, the UP STF had received several cases of cyber frauds in which thugs lured gullible people in the name of life insurance policies, loans, online shopping discounts, and FIRs were registered in Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Azamgarh and Varanasi districts, a senior officer said.

"When investigation was taken up, a number of such gangs which have duped at least Rs 200 crore using the personal data of crores of customers were tracked. Many of those gangs have been busted and probe revealed they were procuring data of users from Ghaziabad-based Prashant Garg," Additional Superintendent of Police, STF, Vishal Vikram Singh said.

"Garg had hacked the personal data of users from prominent mobile payments apps, banks and shopping websites and would sell it to the cyber thugs. Besides the gangs of UP, he had sold the information to those groups operating from Pathankot, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Raipur, Bikaner, etc.," Singh said.

He said the STF was tracking his movement and finally nabbed him from his latest residence in New Arya Nagar around 8 pm and recovered Rs 7.55 lakh in cash, a passport, a laptop containing unauthorised data of users and five bags filled with jewellery worth approximately Rs 40 lakh.

"Amid a crackdown on cyber thugs, Garg, a native of Ghaziabad, had started changing his hideouts frequently. He had changed his looks also and stopped using mobile phone in order to evade surveillance and arrest. He was planning to flee the country," the ASP said.

Further investigation in the matter has been handed over to the Noida Cyber police station, he added.