Latest news with #ITAct
Time of India
4 hours ago
- Time of India
Menace of Online Investment Scams: Kaup Man Loses Rs 7 Lakh
UDUPI: A man from Kaup Padu village allegedly lost Rs 7.26 lakh after falling prey to an online investment scam that promised high returns. In his complaint, Mohan Kotian, 41, stated that he received a link from two unknown individuals on Telegram on May 8. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The link, related to a platform called Share Market, initially yielded a profit as Rs 660 was credited to his account for an investment of Rs 600. Lured by the returns, he continued participating in similar 'tasks' that promised a 60% profit. Over the course of eight transactions, he ended up allegedly depositing a total of Rs 7.26 lakh. Later, he was asked to pay an additional Rs 2 lakh as "tax" with the assurance that Rs 3 lakh, including profits, would be credited to his account. This raised suspicions, prompting Kotian to call the cyber helpline 1930 and report the matter. Two individuals have been named as accused in connection with the fraud. Kaup Police have registered a case, invoking Section 318(4) of the BNS and Section 66 of the IT Act.
New Indian Express
9 hours ago
- Business
- New Indian Express
Two Madurai corporation officials among seven arrested for Rs 25 lakh property tax fraud
MADURAI: In connection with the 2024 property tax fraud that led to a revenue loss of around Rs 25 lakh and more to the Madurai corporation, the city police have arrested seven people, including two Assistant Engineers (AE), in the last three days. The arrested were data entry operators (DEOs) Dhanasekaran, Sathish, Karthikeyan, their associates Sahahussian Rajesh, and two assistant engineers, Senthilkumar and Rengarajan. The fraud came to light on September 6, 2024, when then corporation commissioner, Dinesh Kumar, found some irregularities in the records and lodged a complaint with the city police seeking an investigation. An audit team formed by Kumar found that the property taxes of 150 buildings had been deliberately reduced without proper procedures, and their review uncovered irregularities in the records of Urban Tree Information System (UTIS), an online property tax management platform. Later, notices were issued and bill collectors K Ramalingam, P Mariammal, P Ravichandran, M Kannan, and P Aathimoolam were suspended in connection with the charges. When the investigation was further carried out by the Central Crime Branch (CCB)-II, they found that the fraud occurred between April 1, 2022, and July 31, 2024, where taxes were reduced without proper authorisation, and low property taxes were entered into the UTIS. A case was registered on June 17, 2025, under Sections 406, 465, 466, 468, 477A of the IPC and Sections 66C and 66D of the IT Act. An officer said, "In connection with the issue, seven people were arrested in the last three days, and subsequently, two more assistant programming officers, Ravi and Kannan, will be arrested." The official added that based on the investigation, the corporation zonal chairman and councillors would be investigated. Based on a press release issued by the corporation on Friday, appropriate steps have been taken to prevent such an incident from happening again, and the exact loss will not be known until the complete investigation is over. Corporation commissioner Chitra Vijayan stated that the audit team estimated the loss to be around Rs 25 lakh.
Time of India
16 hours ago
- Time of India
Ransomware targets IT firm handling college admissions
1 2 Kolkata: A ransomware attack on the server of a Sector V company handling online college admissions has compromised students' data and disrupted the entrance process for multiple institutes. The attack involved unauthorised access to servers, financial fraud and an extortion bid. According to the complaint, the first breach occurred between June 15 and 16 on a server hosted in Chennai, allowing the accused access to admission databases for Scottish Church College. The accused used fake email addresses to send fraudulent payment instructions to UG candidates, several of whom were reportedly conned into transferring so-called fees to different accounts. "The breach came to our notice after several candidates told us they had received emails, mentioning bank details and asking them to transfer money. We told all candidates neither to share any details nor send money to this account," said Scottish Church College principal Madhumanjari Mandal. "But from Tuesday to Friday morning, those handling the admission process could not access the website. A new server had to bought and admissions were restarted in the afternoon." by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Livguard Lithium-X: The Future of Power Backup Livguard Shop Now Undo Surya Shakti Infotech Pvt Ltd director Praveen Kumar Jha lodged a complaint at the Bidhannagar Cybercrime PS, saying the company received "multiple coordinated cyber intrusions" between June 15 and June 25. The breaches targeted servers hosted in Chennai and Dallas, resulting in the students' data theft and deletion of admission database of several institutes, including Scottish Church. The complainant said while emergency security measures were implemented after the first breach, two more attacks followed on June 24 and June 25, targeting servers in both Chennai and Dallas, which deleted admission records of multiple colleges. The company also received an email on June 24 from a ProtonMail ID — — that contained implicit threats and hinted at a ransom demand. You Can Also Check: Kolkata AQI | Weather in Kolkata | Bank Holidays in Kolkata | Public Holidays in Kolkata A senior Bidhannagar City Police officer said, "Hackers reportedly gained unauthorised access to admission data and sent fraudulent emails to applicants, instructing them to transfer money. Several students are believed to have lost money." Bidhannagar Cybercrime Police have registered a case under IT Act and the BNS, 2023.
Time of India
17 hours ago
- Time of India
Insurance scam busted, 7 held in Ghaziabad
Ghaziabad: Seven persons were arrested on Friday for operating a fake insurance policy racket that targeted over 1,500 people nationwide. Two suspects, former employees of a Noida call centre, allegedly stole customer data and contacted victims with fake promotional offers. The group created counterfeit receipts using specialised software after receiving payments from victims. They opened their office in a car and earned approximately Rs 4.5 crores through the fraud. Police identified the prime suspects as Aman Aggarwal (29) and Rahul Sharma (23). The five other accused were identified as Aftab Alam (25), Rahul Yadav (30), Deepak Singh (25), Garvit Tyagi (24) and Jagjit Singh (26). Alok Priyadarshi, additional CP of Ghaziabad, told TOI that Aman and Rahul worked at HAXR Company in Noida in 2021. This company was an authorised centre for various insurance policies from companies like Reliance, Bharti Hexa, Cigna TTK, HDFC, and Bajaj. You Can Also Check: Noida AQI | Weather in Noida | Bank Holidays in Noida | Public Holidays in Noida "They provided the mule bank account details to victims and provided fake insurance documents to them. For contacting policyholders, they used pre-activated SIM cards with fake IDs provided by a person named Mukesh (absconding)," Alok said. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like ¡No me lo pierdo! Orange Undo The accused were booked by Cyber police station under the sections 3(5) (acts done by several people in furtherance of common intention), 318 (4) (cheating), 336 (3) and 338 (forgery), 340 (using forged documents) of BNS and Section 66 of the IT Act.
The Hindu
18 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
24 ‘registered unrecognised political parties' under Election Commission scanner
At least 24 political parties from Tamil Nadu that have been categorised as 'registered unrecognised political parties' are likely to be issued show cause notices by the Election Commission of India, as they have not contested even a single election during the past six years. Political parties registered under provisions of Section 29A of the Representation of the Peoples Act, 1951, are entitled to many benefits - exemption from income tax (under Section 13A of the IT Act), recognition (under para 6 of symbols order), common symbol allotment and nomination of star campaigners, among others. The purpose of registration of an association as a political party with the Commission under the Section 29A of the Act was to avail of the provisions of that part for the purposes of the RP Act, 1951, which meant participation in elections conducted by the Commission. 'Over time, a large number of political parties have been registered. However, it has come to the notice that many of the registered unrecognised political parties have not contested even a single election for the last six years since 2019 and many of them have ceased to exist,' a communication from the Commission to the Chief Electoral Officer said. It further directed the CEO to issue show cause notices to each of the 24 political parties and on hearing their response, it directed the CEO to send a detailed proposal with recommendation as to whether it should be delisted.
