Google transfers ₹1.9 Cr to self-proclaimed ‘Hacker’; 'It's ok if you don't want it back'

A self-proclaimed hacker and cyber-security professional from the US, Sam Curry claims that Google transferred $250,000 (Approximately Rs 1.9 crore) to his bank account last month. Sharing the issue on Twitter on Tuesday, Sam seemed clueless as to the reason behind the payment made by the tech giant. 

"It's been a little over 3 weeks since Google randomly sent me $249,999 and I still haven't heard anything on the support ticket. Is there any way we could get in touch @Google," Curry tweeted along with a screenshot of the transaction. Adding to the tweet, he wrote, “(it's OK if you don't want it back...)” 

Google accepts the error, aims to correct it 

In a statement to NPR, Google claimed that the transfer was caused by “human error” and that the tech giant intends to correct the mistake and get the money back. “Our team recently made a payment to the wrong party as the result of human error.” Google appreciated the fact that it was quickly communicated regarding the issue by Sam Curry and claimed that the tech giant was “working to correct it”. 

For the time being, Curry, a Staff Security Engineer at Yuga Labs based in US' Miami, claimed that he occasionally does bug bounty hunting for tech companies including Google. However, he was still unable to link his part-time work to the sum paid to him by Google. Curry further claimed that he was “holding onto” the money in case Google tried to get it back. He further suggested that if Google took too long to get back to connect with him regarding the sum, he might have to move the cash into a separate account to avoid paying taxes on it. 

The concept of paying cybersecurity professionals and hackers to find vulnerabilities and bugs in the software by tech-giants like Google and Facebook or other IT companies is known as ‘Bug Bounty Hunting’.