Telangana: Techie arrested for hacking woman's social media account

A 24-year-old techie has been arrested by Rachakonda Cyber Crime Police for allegedly logging into a woman's social media account in an unauthorized manner and trying to extract money from her friends on the pretext of paying medical bills. The accused has been identified as Bathula Venkateswarlu, a resident of Jillelaguda, Balapur Mandal.

Techie confessed to having sent a link from a phishing website

"During the investigation process, it was revealed that Venkateswarlu is a B.Tech graduate and he is presently working with a Madhapur based computer graphics firm. He confessed to having sent a link from a phishing website (spoofed site) and stole the user ID and password of the victim's Facebook account," said Rachakonda police official. According to the police, the victim woman, hailing from Sarooranagar filed a complained and stated that since September 2019 she was unable to login to her Facebook account.

'He began chatting with her online friends and tried to extract money'

In her complaint, the woman had alleged that someone tried to extract money from her online friends on the pretext of her medical treatment. The woman came to know about this through one of her Facebook friends, whom she knew personally. "Venkateswarlu used her credentials to log in, which were traced by accused through a phishing attack. He then changed the password along with the recovery email address and phone number. Later impersonating as the victim, he began chatting with her online friends and tried to extract money, in small sums on the pretext of paying a medical bill," the police official added.

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Social media accounts of Uttarakhand minister hacked

On November 1, the social media accounts of a Uttarakhand minister holding key portfolios were hacked. The Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts of Urban Development Minister Madan Kaushik were hacked at around 2.30 am on October 31, his Public Relations Officer (PRO) Sumit Bhargav said on Friday. The hackers also hacked the minister's Gmail account, he added. However, the WhatsApp numbers of the hackers were identified and the authorities informed, with a request for quick legal action against them, Bhargav said.

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In a letter to Dehradun Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Arun Mohan Joshi on behalf of Kaushik, Bhargav informed the officer about the incident and gave him the hackers' WhatsApp numbers. He requested the SSP to take cognizance of the matter and initiate legal action against the guilty at the earliest.

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(With ANI inputs)