The Hyderabad cyber crime police on Tuesday arrested a 22-year-old youth from Rajasthan for creating a fake domain name and website of the Indian National Congress (INC) party and conning people by seeking donations. Officials said that the accused, Surendra Choudary, was nabbed from Jaipur.
He created a fake website with the domain name ‘DonateINC.co.in’, which mirrors the actual website of INC (DonateINC.net), said ACP of Hyderabad cyber crimes, G. Siva Maruthi. “People were tricked into believing it to be a genuine website and donated money,” he said, adding that the total amount collected is close to ₹1 lakh. The number of victims who made the donations is yet to be known.
Choudary was charged under Sections 66C and D of the Information Technology Act, 2000, for stealing the charity amount by using fake logo of the party.
After detecting and identifying the details of the accused, a team proceeded to Rajasthan and nabbed him. He was brought to Hyderabad with a transit warrant and was being sent for judicial remand, said A.V. Ranganath, Joint Commissioner of Police, Central Crime Station (CCS), Hyderabad.