Cyberabad police have formed a special team to arrest two suspects who allegedly helped Vinay Bhardwaj obtain data on some 669 million people across the country
Published Date – Mon, 03 Apr 23 at 08:40 AM
Hyderabad: Cyberabad police have formed a special team to arrest two suspects suspected of helping Vinay Bhardwaj obtain data on some 669 million people across the country.
Two individuals, Amer Sohail and Madan Gopal, allegedly provided large amounts of data to Vinay Bhardwaj, who sold it through his website “inspirewebz”. Bhardwaj was arrested by Cyberabad police on Saturday.
“Preliminary investigations revealed that Bhardwaj collected money and provided data to his clients through an online model. He told us that most of the data came from Amer and Gopal, both of whom have absconded. Our team is working hard to catch them,” Cyber A senior official of the abad police said.
The police found that Bhardwaj was selling the data for Rs 20 lakh. 2,000 to Rs. 5,000. “As of now, we are examining the laptop confiscated from him to learn about his clients. We suspect that this data was also sold to fraudsters who may use it to deceive citizens,” the official said.
Police suspect there may be more people who helped Bhardwaj isolate the bulk of the data, and efforts are underway to identify them.
Meanwhile, the Cyberabad Police SIT, formed to investigate a data theft busted last month, issued notices to companies and organizations that illegally obtained data.
These notices have been sent to Big Basket, Phonepe, Facebook, Club Mahendra, Policy Bazaar, Axis Bank, Astute Group, Matrix, Bank of Baroda, State Bank of India and Tech Mahindra.
Cyberabad police found that such data-selling rings operate through call centers and offices based in New Delhi. Most of the business is conducted through an online model, with little physical interaction between buyers and sellers. These gangs use online advertising and business portals to conduct their illegal business.
