Fraudsters dupe people using fake photograph of Bhupalpally collector

Jayashankar Bhupapally: Fraudsters have used the photo of District Collector Bhavesh Mishra for the display photo (DP) of the WhatApp account and tried to cheat the officials, and others in the district recently. They have cheated District Horticulture Officer Akbar to the tune of Rs 50,000 by sending a message asking for financial help with […]

Jayashankar Bhupapally: Fraudsters have used the photo of District Collector Bhavesh Mishra for the display photo (DP) of the WhatApp account and tried to cheat the officials, and others in the district recently. They have cheated District Horticulture Officer Akbar to the tune of Rs 50,000 by sending a message asking for financial help with the Collector’s name and DP.

Unsuspected shared the card details with the fraudsters who purchased gift coupons on Amazon.in Several other officials and employees have either transferred money or helped the cheaters to purchase some items using their debit or credit card. But they have not come forward to disclose the details due to different reasons. However, the Bhupalpally police have registered a case against the unidentified persons following the complaint by the Horticulture officer and took up the investigations to identify the cheater using the Information Technology and other methods of probe. When contacted, Superintendent of Police J Surender Reddy said that they were trying to locate the fraudsters with the help of the cybercrime/IT core wing of the police.

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“One cheater has also created a WhatsApp DP using my photo in the past,” he added. However, the police have not made a breakthrough in the case. It is suspected that the fraudsters were from Bihar State. Meanwhile, the unknown persons also created a fake WhatsApp with the DP of Warangal district collector Dr B Gopi to cheat the people. Messages were sent to officials as well as employees in Warangal asking the transfer money to them through GPay and PhonePe citing different reasons. This has prompted the Collector to issue a clarification that he had not asked money from anyone through WhatsApp. Meanwhile, the police have urged the people to be cautious while making any financial transactions after getting messages through WhatsApp or other social media platforms.

Last year, several fake Facebook accounts were created with the photos of the police officials  by the criminals in the State.

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