Indian-origin hacker gets 51 months jail for computer fraud in US
Darpan News Desk IANS, 24 May, 2023 12:52 PM
ew York, May 24 (IANS) A 38-year-old Indian-origin hacker from Virginia was sentenced to more than four years in prison for hacking into computers and stealing customer credit card numbers.
Chirag Patel from Norfolk pleaded guilty to computer fraud and was sentenced by US District Judge G Murray Snow to 51 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
He also was ordered to pay $87,522.25 in restitution, the US Attorney's Office for the District of Arizona said on Monday.
According to a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), between August 2017 and July 2020, Patel hacked into the Phoenix-based computers of an international hospitality company on numerous occasions.
He then fraudulently transferred and redeemed customer reward points from the company's customer loyalty program.
In addition, Patel also stole credit card numbers and other personally identifying information (PII) from customers and loyalty program members, which were stored in the company's computers.
Patel took screenshots of customers' and members' information, which included credit card numbers and other PII, and saved the screenshots to a Google Drive he controlled.
In total, between August 2017 and July 2020, Patel stole and possessed more than 1,200 credit card numbers, the FBI investigation found.
He used some of the stolen credit card numbers to make unauthorized purchases and also tried to sell some of the stolen credit card numbers.
Kulvinder Kaur died after being hit by a car on Cavendish Road in Walsall town last week and a 20-year-old man has since been charged with causing the 52-year-old woman's death by dangerous driving by West Midlands Police.
But, since it failed to circulate a text to the UNHRC Secretariat by the deadline of 1 pm on September 19, it was clear that they could not find the requisite numbers.
UN
Fake social media accounts, often emanating from Pakistan, continue to paint a grim picture of Jammu and Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370.
Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US later this week, New Jersey Governor Philip D. Murphy on Thursday made a passionate appeal here to Indian businesses for making investments in his state.
Pakistan's foreign direct investment (FDI) has plunged by 58.4 per cent during the first two months of this fiscal year, data published by the Pakistani government has shown.
