Ludhiana: Police issue advisory against fraudsters posing as officials
The cybercrime wing of Punjab Police has issued an advisory to mobile phone users to be cautious of fraudsters who have found new ways to trap and dupe people.
These fraudsters pose as officers and dupe people by sending them suspicious links on WhatsApp. The cybercrime wing has also advised the mobile phone users to verify the source once they receive any lucrative message or offer.
Three such cases have been reported in Ludhiana in the past 45 days wherein fraudsters duped people by impersonating officials. The police have solved only one case till now.
On April 3, the Division Number 5 police had arrested an advocate for threatening revenue officers over phone to do some land registries while posing as an officer on special duty (OSD) to chief minister Bhagwant Mann.
On May 19, another matter surfaced when an unidentified person impersonating Ludhiana deputy commissioner Surabhi Malik allegedly tried to dupe two staffers of the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) by sending them some links on their WhatsApp and asked them to click on them. When the staffers cross-checked the number, they found it to be fake. They brought the matter to the knowledge of the DC, who herself had lodged a complaint with police commissioner Kaustubh Sharma. He marked a probe to the cyber cell after which an FIR was registered.
According to cybercrime officials, most of the people don’t verify the numbers after they receive such messages and get trapped.
A similar case was reported from Ludhiana Rural area when impersonating police officers, some fraudsters had duped the family of an accused of snatching of ₹44,000 on the pretext of setting him free.
They contacted the parents of the snatching accused and asked them to send money using a digital wallet application. However, Hathur police had solved the case on May 24 by arresting the accused.
Sub-inspector Jatinder Singh, incharge of Ludhiana’s cybercrime wing, said the police have alerted people about the frauds and asked them to report such matters immediately.
He said to deal with such crimes, the Punjab Police have launched a separate web portal as well.
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