Noida woman duped of ₹1.5 lakh with fraudster posing as her senior

She got a WhatsApp message from an unidentified number starting with 1-619 and the fraudster used a photo of a senior manager from her company as his profile picture

Noida: A 30-year-old multi-national company worker was allegedly duped of ₹1.5 lakh after a fraudster posed himself as her senior and made her buy “gift cards” for their customers, said police on Sunday, adding that a case of fraud was registered at the Expressway police station.

Due to repeated transactions, when the woman sent a message into a group of their company’s internal employees, she was informed that no one from the company approached her to buy any gift card. (Representational image)

Rashmi Chouhan, a resident of Sector 168, Noida, in her police complaint, stated that on September 21, she received a WhatsApp message from an unidentified number starting from 1-619. The fraudster used a photo of a senior manager from her company as his profile picture, said officers.

“As she works for a multinational company and often exchanges conversations with foreign mobile numbers over WhatsApp messages and calls, she trusted and replied,” said the police, adding that the suspect also collected information about her company to avoid any suspicion.

“As I was aware that one of my seniors had gone to Japan for work purpose, I did not suspect any fraudulent activity. The fraudster, posing as my senior, asked me to buy 15 gift cards for ₹5,000 for some customers in Japan,” states the first information report (FIR) citing her.

Due to repeated transactions, when the woman sent a message into a group of their company’s internal employees, she was informed that no one from the company approached her to buy any gift card.

“The woman reported the incident to cybercrime helpline number 1930, and the case was transferred to Expressway police station,” said Sunil Kumar, station house officer, Expressway police station, adding that a case under Section 66D (punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resources) of the IT Act was registered and further investigation was underway.