A little common sense and some cyber-crime investigation helped the Powai police nab a hacker with the assistance of the Anti- Terrorism Squad (ATS). The investigation began after a woman employed with a shipping company found obscene pictures and emails sent to her official email from her personal rediff account.

The complainant was unable to open her rediff mail account since May and approached the police when she discovered that her account had been hacked. The case was first probed with the help of the Thane Cyber Crime Cell who managed to open her rediff mail account and found an obscene mail from the address sudha123452033@yahoo.com The account appeared to have been accessed from Norway and Singapore.

Later, the Cyber Crime Cell of the ATS was approached. Going by the time the emails had been sent, the cops suspected the hacker could be a sailor. The ATS approached the seamen’s union and made enquiries.

The union had received a mail from a seaman who met with a minor accident on May 21 on a ship in Singapore. The seaman was questioned but he pleaded innocence. He, however, admitted that he had visited the complainant’s office once and had also sent her a mail. However, he said he had only sent an email to her official address without revealing his identity.

The complainant wrote back asking him not to send more emails on her official address. The woman said she then began getting obscene emails, sent from her own e-mail id.

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