The action in Gujarat resulted in the arrest of two individuals and the seizure of credentials for 513,847 Gmail profiles that had been actively used since 2022. State cybercrime investigators confirmed that the operation was tapped to orchestrate interstate bomb alerts.
Gujarat Police plans to question Google regarding security vulnerabilities on its platform, a report has said. This follows the dismantling of a criminal syndicate that created and operated more than half a million fraudulent Gmail accounts to blast fake bomb threats to state institutions.
Vivek Bheda, a senior cybercrime official heading the Gujarat police unit, revealed that investigators intend to formally name Google as a subject of the ongoing probe, describing the volume of manufactured profiles as unprecedented. Authorities quickly confirmed the claims were fraudulent, and investigators traced the transmission trail back to the massive account network.
The report said that Bheda noted that authorities will reach out to the company demanding policy updates to eliminate loopholes that let bad actors sidestep account verification protocols. One of the detained suspects was communicating directly with a purchaser based in Bangladesh, according to Bheda. The client bought bundles of active Gmail accounts using partial payments in cryptocurrency to disseminate the fake alerts.