Gang selling data of 16 crore Indians: ED takes over probe | Hyderabad News

HYDERABAD: The Enforcement Directorate has taken over investigation into the case of confidential data of 16.8 crore Indians being stolen by fraudsters. ED took over the case from Cyberabad police and registered an enforcement case information report, the agency’s version of an FIR.
The accused were involved in the theft, procuring and selling sensitive and confidential data of government and secure organisations among others. Sensitive data of defence personnel including their ranks, email ids and place of posting were also found in the database seized from the accused. The gang was operating mostly in Delhi and the National Capital Region.

Cyberabad police officials were surprised at the sophistication with which the accused had divided the data into 140 categories when they conducted the initial raids. The database included information on defence personnel, energy and power sector corporate honchos, PAN card data of citizens, personal data of government employees, details of D-MAT accounts, data of people who have applied for loans, insurance, credit card and debit cards among others. The accused had also floated three companies – Data Mart Infotech, Global Data Arts and MS Digital Grow.
Data of customers from financial institutions and private banks was also seized. ED will grill the accused, Nitish Bhushan Kumar, Pooja Kumari, Susheel Tomar, Atul Pratap Singh, Muskan Hassan, Sandeep Pal, Zia Ur Rehman and others to get more details.
Cyberabad police commissioner Stephen Ravindra said, “The data is available in the open market through organisations like JustDial and others. Fraudsters are abusing it to commit cybercrime. Possession of this data helps them build trust with victims with which they convince them to part with their money.”