Bhayandar teenager wanted for hacking a game account and extorting money; local cops suspect boy may be involved in 30 such cases
The teenager (face blurred) conned Amit Rai into giving him Rs 3,000 which he said he would return via PayTM. Rai got the money but from PUB-G player, Hitendra Davda. Pics/Hanif Patel
A minor from Bhayandar has been accused of duping PUBG players using a shadow website of the banned game. The boy and his accomplice, also a minor, have allegedly devised a new modus operandi where the link of a website — a copy of the PUBG website — is shared on groups of players on Telegram. Details typed into the website are used to hack into users’ real accounts and extort from them.
The 17-year-old was taken to Navghar police early this month by a shopkeeper he conned and released later.
The boy allegedly hacked into the PUB-G (PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds) account of an Ahmedabad-based businessman and asked him to pay up R35,000. Though PUB-G is banned in India, users play the game using Virtual Private Network (VPN).
The duo create the shadow website and spam various Telegram groups of PUB-G players.
Amit Rai (in picture) and Hitendra Davda planned and caught one of the two boys
“If someone clicks on the link, they are taken to a user interface designed like that of PUB-G. When a user punches their password and username to log-in to the gaming app, their genuine account gets hacked,” said an officer attached to Navghar police in Bhayandar.
“The minor duo hacked into the account of Hitendra Kishorebhai Davda and started extorting from him on Instagram chat,” the officer said.
Valuable gaming account
Davda had been playing PUB-G for three years and his gaming account was valuable as he had purchased expensive weapons to play the game. The boy withheld access to the account and demanded money from Davda to give it back. If a player decides to let his account go, the boy would sell the weapons in the PUB-G system to others.
Since the boy used Telegram, which does not reflect the user’s contact number, to extort the money, the Davda succumbed to their demands.
“Davda was asked to transfer the money through PayTM. One of the boys walked into a mobile shop and requested the owner, Amit Rai, to give him Rs 3,000 for an emergency,” the officer said.
Rai told mid-day, “The boy came to my shop on January 8 saying he is in urgent need of cash but does not have his ATM card. He said if I give him the cash, my PayTM account would be credited by one of his relatives.”
“I got convinced and helped the boy. After taking cash, he vanished and I got a call from Gujarat. The caller said that I cheated him of R3,000,” said Rai, who managed to convince the caller, Davda, that he was only helping someone in need.
Boy trapped at shop
“The caller asked me to help him and narrated his ordeal,” Rai said. Rai and Davda then planned to trap the boy, who had been calling Davda for money.
“Davda was asked to pay R2,000 through PayTM. He paid the amount and sent a screenshot to the boy who walked into my shop to collect the cash on January 11 at 6.30 pm. This time, I managed to catch him and handed him to Navghar police,” said Rai.
“I requested the police to register an FIR against him as he conned me as part of his scheme, but police said that the complaint can only be registered in Gujarat where the victim resides,” said Rai, who stayed at Navghar police station for eight hours. The police checked the boy’s mobile phone and suspect that he could be involved in 30 such cases of cheating people.
“The brother of the boy came to the police station, requesting that he be released as he is a minor. The cops let him go home,” Rai added.
Davda said, “I had called on the police emergency number to register the complaint but the case has not been registered yet.”
Assistant Police Inspector Bhaskar Pulli of Navghar police said, “Davda lives in Ahmedabad in the jurisdiction of Satellite police station. We have called them several times but the cops there are yet to register a complaint.”
Police Inspector JB Agravat from Satellite police station said he will look into the matter.
Both the boys live in Uttan area of Bhayandar and one of them studies in a Vikhroli college.
Rs 35k
Amount the boy demanded from the victim
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