A group of cyber hackers obtaining the PANs of several Bollywood actors and cricket players from their GST Identification Numbers has raised privacy concerns among cybersecurity experts. Abhishek Bachchan, Shilpa Shetty, Madhuri Dixit, Emraan Hashmi, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni are among the celebrities whose names and contact information were used by the fraudsters.
The five accused have been apprehended by the police. They have been identified as Puneet, Mohd Asif, Sunil Kumar, Pankaj Mishar, and Vishwa Bhaskar Sharma, who – according to Delhi Police sources – worked together to defraud the company. Some of these cards were used by the accused to purchase goods worth Rs 21.32 lakh.”Since investigation into the matter is underway, we cannot comment further on it,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) of Shahadra Rohit Meena told the media.
“After arrest, when they were interrogated, they disclosed their unique modus operandi. They used to get GST details of these celebrities from Google. They were very well aware that the first two digits of GSTIN are state code and the next 10 digits are PAN numbers,” said one of the sources.
There were many discrepancies in the information obtained by the fraudsters. For example, Abhishek Bachchan’s PAN card included not only his PAN and date of birth, but also a photograph of one of the accused. They were also said to be aware that these celebrities may have good CIBIL scores, which would improve their chances of getting credit cards.
They conducted months of online research to find ways to exploit flaws in the online verification and issuance of credit cards.
According to police sources, they spent several months conducting online research to find ways to exploit flaws in the online verification and issuance of credit cards.
After getting this information, they applied for credit cards. During video verification, they were asked questions related to their financial activities which they answered easily as they had got all such details from CIBIL.
The source informed that they were aware that these celebrities possibly have good CIBIL scores which would brighten their chances of getting credit cards.
“Also, they were aware that the online verification system cannot identify Abhishek Bachchan as a film star. So the picture of accused Pankaj Mishra with Abhishek Bachchan’s PAN and Aadhaar details worked well to get a card issued,” he added.
Further investigation is on and it is suspected that they might have used similar modus operandi to get credit cards from other banks and financial institutions. Further investigation is underway, and it is suspected that they used a similar method to obtain credit cards from other banks and financial institutions.
