The gang reportedly took Rs 8-10 lakh from a candidate for JEE exams and around Rs 6-8 lakhs for GMAT exams. It was busted by the Delhi Police’s Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSCO) unit after they received information about the syndicate.
New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Wednesday busted a gang hacking into and solving reputed online examinations including Graduate Management Admission Test examination (GMAT) and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) with the help of Russian hackers and arrested six people, said an official. The accused reportedly helped around 18 candidates to clear the GMAT (Graduate Management Aptitude Test) exam and around 500 candidates in other exams in three years, police said.
The gang reportedly took Rs 8-10 lakh from a candidate for JEE exams and around Rs 6-8 lakhs for GMAT exams. The gang was busted by the Delhi Police’s Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSCO) unit after they received information that a few syndicates were involved in unauthorized access of various competitive exams and charging a hefty amount for getting the candidates the desired scores. These syndicates claim to have access to online examinations of GMAT, JEE, etc. As per reports, the gang has made money to the tune of Rs 50-60 crore. The CBI is currently investigating the JEE exam hacking scam.
The accused have been identified as Arshad Dhunna (39), Salman Dhunna (28) and Hemal Shah (42), all residents of Mumbai, Kunal Goel (39), a resident of Delhi, while Mohit Sharma (35) and Raj Teotia (33), both residents of Karnal in Haryana, said police. Teotia, had a reward of Rs one lakh on his arrest from Haryana and was also wanted by CBI, police said.
Russian hackers were also used by the syndicate to get access to various examination portals, police said. They got access to the examination through remote access. The accused downloaded the disguised remote access software, which was not detected by the safety measures and proctor, a senior police officer said.
How Delhi Police Busted the Hacking Gang
During the investigation, the accused persons were contacted and a deal for cracking GMAT exam was struck with them. The exam was booked in the name of a decoy police official, fees was submitted and the slot for exam was booked, a senior police officer said. Token money of the deal was also deposited in the bank account provided by them, police said.
On the exam day on December 26, the accused asked the decoy candidate to download a software Ultraviewer and thereby gained remote access to the candidate’s laptop, the officer said. They also connected the candidate’s laptop to the solver who had attempted the exam and evaded the detection from the proctor and other safety measures, police said.
The hacker got access to the laptop and disguised the remote access file as the system file. The decoy candidate got a total score of 780 out of 800, which is 97 percentile and can get admission to the top MBA colleges worldwide, the officer said. And, during the technical analysis, financial data led to the identification of the syndicate members based in Mumbai.
“Our police officer who posed as a candidate scored 780 marks out of 800 with the help of these people. We then started tracing their location. We found they were in Mumbai. Later, raids were conducted and on January 1, three persons – A Dhunna, S Dhunna and H Shah – were arrested from Mahim. They were tasked with talking to candidates and helping connect their laptops to hackers,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber) KPS Malhotra.
These three were primarily involved in striking the deal and then connecting the decoy customer with another module of the syndicate to solve the exam, the DCP said. In their instance, Goel was apprehended from Pitampura. He runs an institute for networking training course and used to arrange the solvers for the Mumbai-based module. Later, Sharma, who was the solver in this case, was also nabbed from Gurgaon, Malhotra said.
Sharma said that he entered this profession due to Teotia, who is one of the most infamous exam hackers and wanted by CBI and Haryana Police in various cases. A reward of Rs 1 lakh on his arrest was declared by Haryana Police, the DCP said.
On Monday, Teotia was apprehended from Jaipur in Rajasthan. Teotia revealed that he is engaged in online examination hacking and solving for the last five years and had been in touch with Russian hackers also for getting the exams hacked. He also visited Russia in 2018, police said.
He got developed a tool to remotely access the online examination system developed by one of the reputed IT companies, they said. A total of 15 laptops and nine mobile phones have been seized, they added.
GMAT is a computer-based examination for admission in graduate management programs of business schools. Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) is the owing agency of GMAT.
