Fact Check: Was this Hyderabad CEO Juice Jacked?

New Delhi, Oct 03: A story is being circulated on the social media with the claim that a Hyderabad CEO was robbed of Rs 16 lakh with a never before used technique. It is claimed that the the fraud was being committed using bugged charging cables.

The cops were taken aback and wondered how the one could have been robbed from the bank account without triggering OTPs or through a phishing technique. It was also found that there were no signs of tampering on the phone.

The story goes on to say that the law enforcement agencies discovered that someone had replaced the phone charger and the new charger had inside it a chip that was used to hack the phone.

Look what happened with the CEO of a big company in Hyderabad : 16 lakh rupees stolen online from his account. There was no OTP, no call, no online link was sent or opened. The CEO himself is very tech- friendly but there was no way to know how such an amount was stolen. Cyber crime elite officers were on the case but could not figure out or understand . Invisible hand ? wireless crime ? It was found that the mobile charger of the CEO was replaced in the office and another USB charger ( exactly identical make/model ) was placed in its place. *Such a sleek operation was done by a cleaning staff who works outside office hours*. All his data was copied, his entire mobile banking was hacked and money was smoothly withdrawn from the account. In this modus operandi, the charger is first replaced and a micro chip is already installed in that replaced charger and all the data is copied and hacked, the message claimed.

OneIndia learnt that there was no such case that was reported in Hyderabad and the police have clarified that this is a hoax.

Now coming to whether chargers can be used to hack phones? There is a way to hack phones using chargers through the Juice Jacking Attack. A Tech Crunch report says that criminals can load malware on charging stations or cables plugged in stations. This can infect the device that is connected and the malware may lock the device or export data and passwords directly to the criminal.

In 2018 cases of Juice Jacking were reported in Delhi-NCR and the State Bank of India had cautioned against this.

The Odisha police had also cautioned against this and said in a tweet on September 15 2022, ' don't charge your mobiles at public places like mobile charging station, USB power station etc. Cyber fraudsters are trying to steal your personal information from mobile and installing the malware inside your phone.

To avoid such frauds do not charge using public charging stations. In case you have to do so switch off the phone or use a data blocker while doing so.