E-Paper
Bid to dupe SHO by posing as Ludhiana police commissioner falls flat
The complainant, inspector Jaswinder Singh, said that on October 1 he received a WhatsApp message on his official mobile from an unidentified number, which had commissioner of police Kaustubh Sharma’s photograph as the display picture.
In an audacious bid to defraud the Tibba police station house officer, an unknown person posing as the police commissioner demanded that he urgently send him gift cards of a popular e-commerce company . However, the SHO, realising that he was being scammed, lodged a police complaint against the unidentified accused.
The complainant, inspector Jaswinder Singh, said that on October 1 he received a WhatsApp message on his official mobile from an unidentified number, which had commissioner of police Kaustubh Sharma’s photograph as the display picture.
“The accused asked me send him gift cards of the e-commerce company, Amazon.in. The accused said that he urgently need the cards, but as he was in a meeting he could not generate them. He also promised to reimburse me,” he said, adding that the trickster also sent some links on his WhatsApp account and asked him to click on them.
Sensing that there was some trickery afoot, the SHO brought the matter to the notice of the commissioner of police and later lodged an FIR against unidentified fraudsters.
A case was registered under Sections 419 (cheating by personation) and 420 (cheating)of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections of the Information and Technology Act at the Tibba police station.
Officials at cross hairs
After a similar bid on August 18, the commissioner of police had cautioned police personal not to fall in the trap and had ordered the cybercrime wing to trace the accused.
Con artists are becoming more audacious by the day with no one, not even cops and municipal officials safe. Fraudsters had tried to dupe municipal corporation officials using the picture of mayor Balkar Singh Sandhu a couple of weeks ago.
On May 20, impersonating deputy commissioner Surabhi Malik,fraudsters had tried to dupe two Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) staffers by sending them links on WhatsApp and asking them to click on them. When the staffers cross-checked the number, they found that it did not belong to Malik. They brought the matter to the knowledge of the DC, who lodged a complaint with police commissioner Kaustubh Sharma. Sharma marked the probe to the cyber cell, after which an FIR was lodged. The case is still unsolved.
