Aadhaar Alert: Hacker makes Aadhaar biometrics a weapon, withdraws money from a woman's bank account

A famous YouTuber Pushpendra SIngh, who advises people on personal finance and cyber crime, had the first-hand experience of a cyber fraud himself. Sharing his experience on Twitter, he wrote how a fraudster stole her mother's Aadhaar biometrics from the home registry record and used it to withdraw money from a PNB Bank branch.

Pushpendra Sing had gone to a branch of Punjab National Bank in Faridabad last month to get entry into his mother's passbook. He found that somebody had already withdrawn money from her bank account. Photo: PTI

Aadhaar Alert: Frauds are common, where hackers hack one's mobile phone and withdraw their money from banks. Sometimes, hackers steal information from unauthorised websites and breach one's personal details. Other times they trick people through an OTP, a payment, or a QR code. But, have you heard a story where one was sitting at home and did not share any OTP or personal information with anyone, and still someone has completely syphoned off money from their account.

Isn't it shocking?

Such fraud has been committed by stealing information from Aadhaar card.

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What came out of the whole incident makes one belief that not even one's fingerprints (biometrics) are safe anymore.

Let's know how this whole story transpired and how the fraudster executed their plan?

In a startling revelation, it came to light that the hacker first stole the thumb and fingerprints from the registry record of a house in the name of a woman, and then used those biometrics to wipe out the entire bank account of the woman.

At first, it seems impossible, but it happened with the mother of a famous YouTuber, Pushpendra Singh. On his Youtube and Twitter channels, Pushpendra advises people on personal finance and cyber crime.

But he himself had the first-hand experience of a cyber fraud recently.

Pushpendra has shared the entire incident on his Twitter account.

Know it in a sequential manner what happened in her mother's case.

Pushpendra had gone to a branch of Punjab National Bank in faridabad last month to get entry into his mother's passbook.

But what came to the fore after making the entry shocked his senses.

There was zero balance in the account.

He informed about the incident to the bank manger.

Pushpendra was perplexed, and he immediately called his mother and told her that there was not even a single penny in her account.

Mother said that she had never withdrawn money; how could her account be emptied?

Pushpendra came back to his home and went to the bank with his mother and told the whole matter to the bank manager again.

On investigation, it was found that a person from Bihar had withdrawn money from the account using the fingerprint taken from the Aadhaar card data.

Pushpendra was still shocked since he told the manager that her mother didn't share any OTP or Aadhaar card details with anyone.

Knowing the whole matter, the bank manager revealed that theirs was not the first case, and many similar cases have been reported earlier, where hackers copied/cloned the finger print from the plot/flat registry record and carried out such incidents by using biometric details.

Pushpendra said that it was entirely the bank's fault.

He said that if money could not be safe in a bank, where could he keep it?

He said that it was a failure of the banking system as the bank didn't block the account access despite repeated transactions from different accounts.

How my mother Saving Account drain by hacker with the help of #aadharcard
Here is the complete thread

— Pushpendra Singh (@pushpendrakum) May 2, 2023

The most surprising answer was from the bank manager, who said it was too late to file a complaint.

The manager said that other people who have been cheated are also not serious about lodging a complaint.

Pushpendra wrote that on the same day, he met many people in the bank whose bank accounts had been hacked in different ways.

Pushpendra, however, was not ready to give up easily, as he argued with the manager to file a complaint.

After a long discussion, the manager said that he could file a complaint only if Pushpendra filed a police report.

Pushpendra filed a case with the cybercrime branch, but to no avail. He is yet to get the money back into his mother's account.

One thing that came out of this whole incident, which puts everyone in a quandary is that.. even Aadhaar biometrics are not safe, and one's fingerprints can also be stolen.

Pushpendra says that it is necessary to stop Aadhaar biometric authentication.

By default, it is on.

He said that in such a situation, the hacker can easily clone the fingerprint and access the bank account with different locations.

However, these are just the thoughts of a helpless person, as biometric authentication is one of the best ways to secure one's data.

It is just that the banks and the authorities that use biometrics need to come up with better cyber security systems.

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