The cyber crime police are on the lookout for a man who accessed the pin numbers of gift cards from a well-known retail fashion brand, which has stores across the country, before they were printed and purchased products worth Rs. 5 lakh online. The racket came to light when the company received complaints from its customers that the gift cards issued to them had already been used.
According to the police, it had outsourced the work to a Bengaluru-based firm that provided end-to-end gifting and stored-value solutions. They in turn had given the printing work to a local company, from where the PIN numbers were leaked, said the police.
A password protected file with the data had been given to the company on June 4. “However, before printing the card, someone accessed the data and made online purchases. Further inquiries revealed that products worth Rs. 5,02,399 had been delivered to a single address in Salem in Tamil Nadu,” said the police.
Based on a complaint filed by T.P. Pratap, co-founder of Qwiksilver Solutions Private Limited, the CID cyber crime police have taken up a case under various sections of the IT Act. Efforts are on to trace the accused.