How gang from Bihar gamed Aadhaar-enabled payment system in Karnataka

Police Commissioner (Mangaluru) Anupam Agarwal told The Indian Express that the accused downloaded property documents available in the portal. “The downloaded property deeds had thumb impressions. These prints were replicated and developed on a material made of plastic,” he said.

Fingerprints and Aadhaar numbers were used to withdraw money from point-of-sale (PoS) machines used by business correspondents who provide last-mile banking services in rural areas. One of the accused, Agarwal said, was a business correspondent who used the PoS machine to withdraw money illegally.

Property deeds of Mangaluru, Bengaluru, Chikkamagaluru and other cities were found during the arrest of the accused, he said.

The police suspect that gangs following a similar modus operandi could be operational in other parts of the country. The scam came to the fore after several property users in Bengaluru and Mangaluru filed complaints of money being withdrawn from their accounts, days or weeks after registering their properties.

The police looked into the role of various agencies involved in biometric verification for property registration, apart from writing to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) about the issue.

In the wake of rising cheating cases using AePS, National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) wrote to all banks and payment companies recently to bring in additional security measures to stop fraud. The NPCI also asked banks to stop AePS service for accounts that have not received any debits under AePS mode in the last 12 months.