New Delhi: A 19-year-old Odisha villager hacked a toll-free number of a private company, causing it a loss of Rs 60 lakh.
Himalaya Mohanty (19), a resident of Shibapura village in Balasore district, hacked on a website and managed to get the code of an EPABX of toll-free number of the customer care centre of Lloyd Electricals and Engineering Ltd. He put the code online by creating his own website.
Mohanty, who studies at an ITI, is well versed with English language. He acquired hacking skills by participating in online discussions and is able to hack Wi-Fi routers, email and Facebook accounts along with smartphones.
Meanwhile, the Cyberabad police zeroed in on his location and arrested him at his village in Balasore district.
“When people contacted him using their phones, he used to hack their phones by sending a Trojan (virus) and used to track their movements. However, all this was done by him without gaining financial benefit,” police said.
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Thousands of net surfers made free calls by using the code and the company received a hefty bill of about Rs 60 lakh against the usual Rs 1 lakh per month, police said.
"In spite of his poor English, he got himself registered in various forums/websites of hacking and participating in chatting by using translator software....he did not gain monetarily in this case," a police release said, adding that he told the officers that he did it only for fun.
In November, Lloyd company had received a Rs 60 lakh telephone bill for the toll-free number, which they operate for their customers, against the usual Rs 1 lakh per month. Then his IP address was tracked down where he was caught by Odisha police.
