Man arrested for stealing customer data of leading online lingerie brand to extort money

Jaipur, Jun 4 (PTI) A man was arrested by the Special Operations Group of Rajasthan police for allegedly stealing data of the customers of a leading online lingerie company to extort money from the brand, an official said on Sunday.
     The accused identified as Sanjay Soni (36), a resident of Udaipur, also tried to give a communal colour to the incident, alleging that data of several Hindu women was being sold by the company for the purpose of religious conversion, they said.
     The accused was arrested by the SOG on May 30, following a complaint lodged by company officials at police headquarters here.
     The accused was produced before a court on Saturday and was sent to jail.
     "The accused extorted money from the company by blackmailing them, besides giving a communal colour to the compromised data on social media following which he was arrested," Additional Director General of Police (ATS & SOG) Ashok Rathore said Sunday.
     According to police, Soni had earlier reached out to the company in order to fix a bug that he had spotted.
     The investigating officer in the case, Inspector Poonam Chaudhary said he had asked the organisation to pay him USD 1,500 in exchange for fixing the bug and had also received USD 1,000 through bitcoins from them.
     However, later, to extort money, he started uploading the company's data online, alleging that it saved information of Hindu women and sold them for the purpose of religious conversion. That is when the organisation reported him, police said.
    The accused has five more cases registered against him in Bangalore, Mumbai, Lucknow and Udaipur.
     Police have registered a case against him under section 66 of the Information Technology (IT) Act and section 295A (outraging religious feelings) and 153A (Promoting enmity) of the Indian Penal Code. A preliminary investigation has revealed that the accused was part of an online community involved in hacking.
     While some hackers identify security problems in company websites and are rewarded for their detection of bugs, Soni intended to exploit these lapses for financial gain, they added.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)