Ahmedabad: Five arrested for hacking into ATMs, stealing Rs 32 lakh

Five people have been arrested by cybercrime officials for hacking into at least 15 unguarded ATMs and stealing Rs 32 lakh in the past one month. These thefts took place in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Vadodara and Rajkot.

Called Man in the Middle hacking, the modus operandi involves intercepting two-way encrypted messaging and data transfer between an ATM and the bank's main server to prompt ATMs to dispense cash. So, while the account holders do not lose money, the ATMs are robbed of cash.

On Wednesday, a bank manager in Maninagar filed a complaint alleging that someone had hacked an ATM machine to steal Rs 8.30 lakh on February 7. Technical analysis showed that five men were involved in the theft and their locations were registered in the aforementioned cities.

Acting on human intelligence and technical surveillance, the police caught the accused on Tuesday and Wednesday. The accused are: Sandip Singh, 39, an emigration agent from Punjab; Ravi Solanki, 25, a resident of Rajkot; Neeldeep Solanki, 26, a resident of Kutch; Gurudev Singh, 25, and Amritpal Singh,25, both residents of Assam. Main accused Pramod Kumar from Delhi, who is on the run, had given the hacking device to Sandip.

Sandip received 15% commission on each illegal withdrawal whereas the others got Rs 15,000 per offence.