Bengaluru police bust hackers' gang from Nagaland, 3 held

BENGALURU: Bengaluru police on Wednesday arrested three computer programmers from Nagaland who allegedly hacked former Karnataka top cop Shankar Bidari's email ID and conned Rs 25,000 from one of his friends.

The police said that the accused had operated more than 60 accounts in various banks and a large number of documents — rent agreements, Aadhaar cards and PAN cards were recovered from them. The police added that the accused were not only experts in hacking websites but had also floated a fake human-resources company to lure unemployed youth from the North East States.

According to the police, the arrested were identified as Thia Samong (31 years), Seropa Sesai (27 years) and Esther Konyak alias Rubika (28 years).

The police added that all the accused are from Mon district of Nagaland but Rubika was working in Bengaluru in a beauty salon for the last couple of years. Mon district is bordering Myanmar.

The police said that the accused belong to the Konyak tribe who are very skilled in the art of making firearms as well as handicrafts like baskets, cane and bamboo work, brass work among other items.

The police said that these accused had come in contact with two persons — James and Peter — on social media sites like Facebook and under their guidance they carried out this phishing attack. "At present James and Peter are on the run," said the police.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, (South-East Division) Sreenath Joshi told reporters that Rubika used to be the face of the racket. Showing her as the employment officer in high profile companies, Thia and Seropa used to collect documents such as Aadhaar cards and PAN cards from gullible unemployed youth in Nagaland and other North East States, which were used for opening bank accounts here.

The police said that after carrying out the attack, these accused used to transfer money into different accounts. "Their modus operandi was simple, hacking well-known personalities' email or social media site IDs. They also used to create fake profiles on social media sites, then they used to seek financial help from the friends of these personalities. Thinking that their 'VIP friend' is in trouble, most of them used to transfer money," explained the police.

The police further said that this network came to light after former Karnataka DG and IGP Shankar Bidari became the victim of a phishing attack and lodged a complaint in this regard last month. (IANS)

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