🕵️ [Straits Times+] One man's complaint about data theft exposes Covid-19 test scam in India 🕵️

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ubtokendotnet

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One man's complaint about data theft exposes Covid-19 test scam in India​


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Mr Vipan Mittal's test was one of more than 100,000 bogus PCR and rapid antigen tests conducted.PHOTO: EPA-EFE

BANGALORE - A small-time Punjab politician's frustration over a Covid-19 test update he received - without having gone for a swab - has exposed a massive scam in India involving at least 100,000 fake tests done at the Kumbh Mela religious gathering.

On April 22, Mr Vipan Mittal was at home in Faridkot when he received a text message that said: "Rapid Antigen sample collected." The message had his name and unique identity card number.

"At first, I was confused, then I got angry that someone had stolen my personal data and misused it," said 52-year-old Mr Mittal, who is a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Faridkot.

Mr Mittal, who is an insurance agent, complained to local health officials, the district deputy commissioner and senior medical officers. "Even though I said I never got tested, they said, 'No, you must have taken a test!' " he said.

Indignant, he e-mailed several coordinators at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), which oversees the country's Covid-19 testing. When he received no response for a fortnight, he filed a Right to Information application, demanding to know where and by whom the test was conducted.

After 1½ months of the application moving from department to department, he received a reply in June: The sample collected in Haridwar district in Uttarakhand state and the report he received were both fake.

It turned out that his test was one of more than 100,000 bogus polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and rapid antigen tests conducted at the Kumbh Mela, one of the world's largest religious gatherings that was held in Uttarakhand from April 1 to 30.

Almost 9.1 million pilgrims attended the festival, most of them unmasked and taking dips in the Ganga river with no social distancing, even as public health experts criticised it as a superspreader event that worsened India's second wave of infections.

States like Rajasthan and Odisha reported that returning pilgrims infected a large number of people, especially in rural areas. In Gujarat, 34 of 313 passengers in one train had tested positive.

Mr Mittal's irate complaint triggered a large-scale investigation by the ICMR and the Uttarakhand government that found that at least a quarter of the test reports generated at the festival were shams.

The BJP-led Uttarakhand government had hired private agencies to screen visitors for the coronavirus. A court order required them to carry out at least 50,000 tests daily in Haridwar during the Kumbh. At least 400,000 tests were conducted in total.

The state health authority's 1,600-page probe report lists many creative tricks the labs allegedly devised to record bogus tests. In one instance, a single phone number was used to register over 50 people. A single-use antigen kit was also shown to have tested about 700 samples, reported The Times of India.

Many phone numbers like Mr Mittal's were taken from unsecured databases to register fake test subjects.

Haridwar District Magistrate C. Ravishankar said the police had registered a complaint against eight labs, and their payments would be withheld till the investigation is completed.

When colleagues chided Mr Mittal for embarrassing Mr Modi and the BJP, which leads the Uttarakhand government, he said: "BJP is not a party of scams. I trust Prime Minister Modi to catch the real scamsters and punish them."

He also defended himself: "My friends warned me to be careful and lie low, but why? I haven't stolen anything. I only asked for my information and on that basis, a huge truth was revealed. If someone wants to attack me for that, I say bring it on."

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/s...ata-theft-exposes-covid-19-test-scam-in-india
 

feelsleepynow

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omg.... it's motherland, what will happen to tiny island, sinkapur, when they did that to come here? Will sinkapur sink more with covid transmission?
 

blurblur123

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We already suspected it months ago liao yet they still let them come in
 

Miss.Molly

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Ok so in this case, they were creating fake tests (using unauthorised personal data) coz they are paid according to the number of tests done. More tests, can claim more money.

If they can do this, surely they can also fake tests for ppl who need to travel with a clean bill of health, right? Pre-departure tests.
 

SmallQuietDog

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Well, it's India. Why be surprised?

I would be surprised and shocked if they did NOT scam or fake on the level they are doing now. The whole damn country is a scam itself.
 
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