Techie Held For Hacking Air India Frequent Flyers Accounts

July 18, 2016

New Delhi, Jul 18: A 23-year-old techie has been arrested for hacking Air India's Frequent Flyer member accounts and using them to book tickets sold to several travel agents, Delhi Police said on Sunday.

airindiaThe accused, Anitesh Giri Goswami, a BCA graduate from Pune, was arrested from Jaipur on Friday.

According to police, a complaint was received in the Cyber Crime Cell of the Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) alleging some persons were selling Air India tickets by redeeming of miles of genuine Flying Returns Members after hacking the Frequent Flyer members account.

In a statement, the EOW said it was found that the hub of the scam was in Rajasthan's Jodhpur and Anitesh was its mastermind. On basis of electronic surveillance and information of a local informer, a raid was conducted at an apartment in Jaipur and Anitesh was nabbed.

A laptop, several mobile phones and other relevant documents were also recovered from his possession.

Police further claimed that Anitesh was an IT expert, who had earlier worked with Kingfisher Airlines and Air India and was well versed with the online ticket-booking system and functioning of Air India's intranet and internet-based systems.

Explaining the modus operandi, police said that Anitesh first understood functioning of the ticketing system as well as the points/miles system of the airlines and then hacked into the Loyalty Plus programme website of Air India.

After gaining access, he administrator user rights, which he used to upgrade several other user IDs with the same rights, police said.

Using these IDs, he verified hundreds of dormant accounts of Frequent Flyer members by uploading fraudulently prepared KYC (know your customer) documents, and used these membership accounts and the miles or points accumulated in these accounts for booking airline tickets. These were sold to various travel or ticketing agents based in Pune, Delhi, Jaipur and Mumbai.

He gained access to the internal functioning of Air India website while working at the Jodhpur airport, and left his Air India job to start exploiting loopholes in the Frequent Flyer Programme's functioning.

Comments

Suresh
 - 
Monday, 18 Jul 2016

May be brother of arnab!!

Ahmed Ali K
 - 
Monday, 18 Jul 2016

Both Go-Swamis are jokers and talk of the town now a days

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July 9,2020

Dubai, Jul 9: Air India Express has opened ticket bookings for flights from India to the UAE from July 12 to 26. The carrier posted the announcement on its social media pages.

“INDIA to UAE - Flights are open for sale! Bookings could be made through our website (http://airindiaexpress.in), call centre or authorised travel agents. Visit http://blog.airindiaexpress.in for more details,” the budget airline tweeted.

A clause mentioned in the flyer attached to the post added that only UAE residents with permits to return from India can book flights.

Thousands of Indian expats have been waiting to book flights back to the UAE after being stuck home for about four months due to the COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Vande Bharat Mission flights

Under the fourth phase of Vande Bharat Mission, as many as 104 flights will be operating between UAE and India. 

The Air India announced this on Twitter under a post “#FlyAI : Important Information for ICA approved UAE residents who wish to travel to UAE on Vande Bharat Mission flights.”

A flyer attached to the post addressed passengers who wish to travel to UAE on flights being operated under Vande Bharat Mission by Air India and Air India Express in pursuance of agreement between Civil Aviation authorities of India and the UAE.

“AI and AIE operating evacuation flights to Indian citizens from the UAE to India will carry ICA approved UAE residents (returning to the UAE from India) on the outward journey from India to the UAE.”

“On the India-UAE journey, all these flights will carry only those passengers who are destined for the UAE.”

“This arrangement will be operational for a period of 15 days from July 12 to 26,” the airline added.

While most of the Vande Bharat flights are operated by AIE, a few flights from Sharjah are operated by Air India.

Comments

Prasadramachandran
 - 
Saturday, 11 Jul 2020

My contact number is 7306562447

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News Network
July 27,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 27: The Karnataka government on Sunday directed the Director General of Police Praveen Sood to submit a detailed report on the internal security following the United Nations' observation that international terror outfit IS was active in the state.

The UN report stated that Al-Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent, which reportedly has between 150 and 200 members from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, was reportedly planning attacks in the region.

It also warned that there were 'significant numbers' of ISIS operatives in Karnataka and Kerala. Reacting to the UN report, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the state government has taken a serious note of the report on the activities of IS in the state.

The state government is in touch with the Centre and the neighbouring states to keep a close watch on the activities of suspicious people and their supporters.

"In this context, it has been decided to strengthen the internal security of the state. The Director General of Police has been asked to submit a detailed report," Bommai said in a release.

The state is also keeping a strict vigil on all those entering Bengaluru from other states, the Minister said. He recalled that the state police had arrested several members of Al-Hind organisation in January last and Jamaat- ul-Mujahideen from Bangladesh in 2018 and 2019. He added that the National Investigation Agency is investigating the case of JMB.

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News Network
March 21,2020

Kasaragod, Mar 21: The lack of self-restraint and social distancing by people here, the ones who come from the Middle East regions, in particular, has been a cause of concern for the district authorities who have time and again been reiterating the need to follow tips from health authorities to counter the spread of Novel Coronavirus.

But as things are feared to go out of control, the district authorities including the Collector Dr. Sajith Babu have come out to the streets and bazaars only to impose social distancing instructions now in place in the district strictly since six more persons have been tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday.

According to health authorities, the new cases were caused by a few people who recently returned from abroad and who did not follow the self-quarantine measures.

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