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Beware of gift voucher requests, it’s probably a swindler out to scam you
By impersonating notable people through WhatsApp, cyber criminals are seeking gift vouchers from their contacts, caution Chandigarh Police
Got a message from a contact on social media urgently requiring a gift voucher? Instead of obliging, it would pay to first cross-check with them personally or you may end up becoming the latest prey of cyber criminals.
After duping people by posing as bank and insurance firm executives, cyber criminals have taken on a new modus operandi – seeking gift vouchers by using pictures of heads of government departments and institutes or simply a contact of the victim.
Latest among such impersonations is the use of Chandigarh DGP Praveer Ranjan’s picture on WhatsApp to swindle unsuspecting people. Having received information about it, the DGP took to social media, alerting citizens about such fraudsters and urging them to immediately report similar correspondence to police.
The cyber cell of Chandigarh police has received six such complaints recently and is working to trace the fraudsters.
Prominent among these cases was the use of pictures of PGIMER director Dr Vivek Lal, a Punjab and Haryana high court judge, principal secretary to the Punjab governor and the head of a department at Panjab University. Similar attempts were also made using the pictures of a senior female doctor at GMCH, Sector 32, and a professor at a private university in Mohali.
According to police, in all cases, the fraudsters tried to secure monetary favours through gift vouchers and even succeeded by using the image of the principal secretary to the Punjab governor.
Here the victim was Jasdev Singh Sidhu, 54, a superintendent of police, living in Sector 69, Mohali. The swindler duped him of ₹1 lakh by posing as Balamurugan, principal secretary to the Punjab Governor. Sidhu, who is posted in the security unit of Punjab Raj Bhavan in Chandigarh, received a WhatsApp message from someone claiming to be Balamurugan. Through the message, the fraudster asked for 10 Amazon e-vouchers of ₹10,000 each, citing an emergency. Sidhu obliged and shared the 10 e-vouchers, only to realise he had been defrauded.
‘Hard to trace gift voucher transactions’
A police official said after gaining access to the impersonated person’s contacts through social media, the fraudsters contact them seeking vouchers for an exigency. To avoid being caught, they convince the victim not to call and continue to correspond via messages.
“These gift vouchers can be redeemed in any part of the country and are hard to trace,” said the official, advising people to always verify the communication with the person by contacting them at their usual phone number.
“With more cases of similar modus operandi cropping up, we are creating awareness on social media platforms through advisories,” said Hari Om, in-charge, cyber crime investigation cell, Chandigarh Police.
Police are also planning to write to heads of various departments and institutes to circulate advisories in their offices against such fraud attempts.
