Mohali-based music firm loses ₹64L AdSense revenue to hacker

AdSense is an advertising programme that allows online creators to earn money by displaying third-party ads on their sites

A Mohali-based music company lost ₹64 lakh to an online fraudster who hacked into the firm’s Google AdSense account and diverted all the payments it was receiving from social media platforms, such as YouTube, to his own bank account.

In October, Google sent an email, stating that the company’s account was compromised. (Getty Images)

AdSense is an advertising programme that allows online creators to earn money by displaying third-party ads on their sites.

Complainant Gurkaran Singh Dhaliwal of Sector 71, Mohali, told the police, “We Sky Digital is a company that works in the online music space. Our office SKY Digital is on the Mohali-Landran Road. On September 21, we came to know that our AdSense account was hacked on September 18, 2023. Without any delay, we communicated it to the Google team for verification following which, they held back our payments.”

In October, Google sent an email, stating that the company’s account was compromised.

“It was then that we found out that the hacker had replaced the company’s email ID and account number with his own due to which all the online payments from YouTube and other social media platforms were being deposited in the fraudster’s account,” said the complainant.

“The account to which our payments were going was in the name of one Mashuda Begum, in Karimganj, Assam,” said the complainant.

After receiving the complaint, Mohali senior superintendent of police (SSP) forwarded the complaint to the local cyber cell.

Mataur Police have booked an unidentified person under Sections 420 (cheating) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code (IPC).