E-Paper
Cyber fraudsters try to target Yashada in Pune
Cyber fraudsters attempt to dupe government’s Yashada by sending messages in the name of its director general
Cyber fraudsters attempt to dupe government’s Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration (Yashada) in Pune by sending messages in the name of its director general S Chokkalingam and asking to transfer money, Pune police said on Thursday.
The fraud unfolds during the morning hours of Thursday. A police case for cheating and offenses under the Information Technology Act has been registered against unknown fraudsters at cyber cell, said Chokkalingam.
According to the police, a Yashada staffer from account department received WhatsApp messages from a person who posed as Chokkalingam. The sender asked the Yashada staffer that he was busy in some important meeting and unable to take or make calls. He required some urgent money hence asked staffer to send Amazon voucher gifts so that he can get money.
However, the staffer alerted the Yashada administration about the suspicious messages and a police complaint was filed.
Chokkalingam said, “Some fraudsters tried to impersonate me in WhatsApp showing my photo from different numbers and asked gift cards. As people know that I do not use the app, none was trapped by fraudsters.’’
He called the Pune police commissioner and shared screenshots of the messages. “We made a complaint to WhatsApp also,” he said.
In a similar case, fraudsters duped Serum Institute of India (SII) of more than ₹1 crore by sending messages in the name of its CEO Adar Poonawalla. A 46-year-old chief executive officer’s (CEO) email account was hacked and the company was duped of Rs54.39 lakh by cyber fraudsters.
Bhagyashree Navtake, deputy commissioner of police of Pune’s cyber cell, said, “Nowadays, cases of impersonating are increasing in which fraudsters send messages by using photographs and asking for payment by sharing account details. Please cross verify before making any payment. People should report/block such mobile numbers and avoid clicking on unknown link send from unknown number.”
Rohan Nyayadhish, cyber expert and founder and managing director of Digital Task Force Legal Services LLP, said, “Cyber frauds are increasing because we are not cautious while surfing on the internet. We can easily download any application by allowing them to access our mobile data. One should be careful while downloading anything in our phone or laptop.’’
Nyayadish said that in such impersonating cases, people should immediately alert the police. “One should avoid posting mobile numbers on various social media sites. Alerting cyber team increases the chance of getting back money,” he said.
