A conman posing as the Mumbai Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar asking people for money has the police top brass fuming in rage at the embarassment caused by the audacity of the cyber fraudster.
The cyber criminal using a photograph of the Mumbai Police chief in uniform as the display profile on popoular messaging mobile application WhatsApp sent messages asking send amazon gift vouchers (amazon pay e gift card) of Rs 10k value.
“The police is registering an FIRand tracing the accused,” said Mumbai Police in a statement. The whatsapp message sent to several people over the past few days reads, “There is something I need you to please do for me urgently as I am currently attending a very crucial meeting with limited phone calls? There are some listed prospects I am presenting them today. I can’t get it done myself due to meetings and I don’t have any of my cards with me. How quickly can you arrange these gift cards because I need to send them out in less than an hour. I would provide you with the type of gift cards and the amount of each. I will reimburse you before the end of the day.”
The message goes on to add, “Alright thanks a lot, Here are the details: 20 pieces of Amazon pay E gift cards with Rs 10,000 value on each card (Use either the Congratulations or Thank you theme) Have the link shared here so I can easily forward them directly to prospects. Please notify me once you are done with the purchase as it’s quite urgent. Thanks”.
A team of crime branch and cyber crime cell is further tracking the whatsapp number and ascertaining if any financial transaction by the members of the public was done on the fraud message.
Earlier last week a cyber fraudster on WhatsApp posed as the chairman and managing director of the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co Ltd (MSEDCL) and tried to dupe the company’s employees by sending them messages asking for money owing to an emergency. An alert MSEDCL executive engineer felt suspicious and alerted other employees who said that they too had received the same message.
