15-year-old dupes dozens online, makes ₹8L in months, say Delhi police

Police said that the boy scouted social media accounts for phone numbers and email IDs and made attempts to login in

A 15-year-old boy, a school dropout, allegedly duped at least 13 people by hacking their social media accounts and emails to gain access to their contacts and asking for money, Delhi Police said after apprehending the suspect from Mathura.

The crime was brought to the police’s notice on Tuesday when Nitin Kumar Mittal, a resident of Krishna Nagar in east Delhi, approached the cyber police station of Shahdara to complain about someone impersonating him to cheat his relative of ₹80,000. (Representational Image)

Deputy commissioner of police (Shahdara) Rohit Meena said that the boy had allegedly been duping people for nearly a year and earned over ₹8 lakh, his interrogation and bank account statement revealed.

“We are analysing his call detail records and WhatsApp chats to find out about all the people he cheated,” said Meena.

The crime was brought to the police’s notice on Tuesday when Nitin Kumar Mittal, a resident of Krishna Nagar in east Delhi, approached the cyber police station of Shahdara to complain about someone impersonating him to cheat his relative of ₹80,000.

“The boy used Mittal’s photo on WhatsApp and messaged his relative on April 22 and told the relative that he was hospitalised, urgently needing money. He said he will return the money in a couple of days. The relative believed that the person in distress was indeed Mittal and transferred ₹80,000,” said Meena.

Police said they finally got clues about the identity of the suspect while analysing the phone number registered with the bank account and traced the suspect to his village in Mathura.

Police said the boy belongs to a poor family and dropped out of school in Class 2.

DCP Meena said that the boy scouted social media accounts for phone numbers and email IDs and made attempts to login in. “For the password, he tried entering the phone number of the account holder, which often turned out to be the correct password,” said Meena.

“Once he got access to the email, he accessed the person’s contacts and procured the phone numbers of their friends and relatives. The suspect then analysed the nature of the relationship between the two people and executed the plan if he found the two to be close,” the officer said. Police said that the boy attempted to hack into a number of accounts every day, which would often be successful.