Gang hacks govt portals to issue fake birth, death certs

Gang hacks govt portals to issue fake birth, death certs

Chandigarh:04.11.2021

Haryana Police on Wednesday said it has arrested two people from Bihar who allegedly issued around 800 fake birth and death certificates by hacking into government websites of several states. The arrested have been identified as Santosh and Mantosh, residents of a village in Bihar's Samastipur. A team from the Cyber Crime police station, Karnal Range, arrested them from their village, Haryana Police said in a statement. Two laptops, two mobile phones and a CPU among other articles were recovered from their possession, police said.

“During interrogation, it was revealed that around 800 fake birth and death certificates have been issued by the accused by hacking into government websites in Haryana, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and many other states,” the statement read. The scam came to light after the principal medical officer at the Karnal Civil Hospital filed a complaint with the Haryana Police that login credentials of the hospital’s birth and death certificate registration unit had been compromised.

“Investigation also revealed that for the purpose of issuing fake certificates, the accused, along with their associates, had formed a WhatsApp group. As soon as a person came in contact with them for birth and death certificates, they would send an alert in the WhatsApp group and their accomplice in MP would hack the relevant website and post its link in the group,” the statement read.

The two arrested accused would then login to the website and issue a fake certificate in the client's name and forward the same to the client via WhatsApp, albeit with a fake signature. They charged a hefty sum, which clients would transfer into their bank accounts digitally. PTI