17-year-old boy allegedly hacked payment system of a cafe and transferred funds from membership cards to his own card.
Mumbai: A teenaged student allegedly hacked into the payment system of a cafe and used it to transfer funds from the membership cards of other customers into his own. The 17-year-old student was asked to undergo counselling for two years by a juvenile court in Mumbai.
The accused teenager is pursuing chartered accountancy and he cleared his Class 12 exams with more than 80 per cent. The incident came to light when the owner of the coffee shop approached the cyber police on September 28 and lodged a complaint.
Customer approached owner with grievances
A probe revealed that the shop gives membership cards to its customers that can be used to make purchases and earn rewards. The owner grew suspicious when one of the customers told him that the funds from his card were spent even as he did not use it.
The owner of the cafe then checked the payment system and spoke to other customers. The other customers also had similar grievances. The man then approached the police and a probe was launched.
The police traced the IP address of the accused to Odisha but the same was a false lead, The Times of India reported. The police then used technical surveillance to locate the accused and traced him from a housing society. The police, however, did not know which of the 36 flats belonged to the accused.
The cops then camped at the building for four days and confirmed that the 17-year-old boy was involved. On Thursday, a charge sheet against the accused was filed before the juvenile court. Allegedly, the teenage boy had taken tips from YouTube to hack into the payment system of the cafe.
