UP: Agra student hacks bank account over online game dare, arrested

LUCKNOW: It’s easy to get sucked into the world of crime when you are thrown a dare in that online game, but it’s even easier to trace you, as a 20-year-old college student from Agra realized when he was arrested on Saturday by the Azamgarh police on charges of hacking a bank account in Azamgarh and swindling Rs10 lakh.
The arrest followed constant surveillance after an FIR was registered by a private schoolteacher Hariwansh Lal Srivastava at the Bilariyaganj police station of Azamgarh district on May 12.
The FIR stated that a sum of Rs10 lakh was debited from Srivastava’s account between April 10 and May 12. Azamgarh superintendent of police, Triveni Singh monitored the case and tasked the cyber cell unit to work upon it.
"We worked the case entirely on electronic evidence and surveillance. We traced the mobile phone used to hack Srivastava’s account from Lohia Nagar under Balkeshwar police station in Agra. The handset was traced to one Sagar Singh," said the SP.
A police team detained Sagar and during interrogation he confessed to have committed the crime, but revealed that it was actually a part of a dare he had completed in order to win a stage in an online game called "Fire power". The online site also offers opportunities to make money through such expertise.
Sagar disclosed that the online gaming site has an international presence, the officer added.
"I got drawn into the game during the lockdown period. First, one has to qualify difficult stages and then you get diamond and gold coins to crack other stages. As you gradually cross the stages the online game also tutors tricks of hacking," Sagar said when the police produced him before media persons.
SP Azamgarh told TOI that the online gaming gang is pushing "gaming enthusiasts" into crime. "They keep track of such enthusiasts and then lure them with deals for cracking stages in a game. They are asked to either pay or solve a dare, which is hacking," he added.
The police are studying the pattern and on the basis of Sagar’s confession, have also traced seven members of the gang including six youth and a woman.