Two Goan government officers’ phony WhatsApp accounts are set up by fraudsters in order to defraud others
According to charges made by the Chief Electoral Officer and two other high-ranking Goan government officials, some cybercriminals set up phony WhatsApp accounts in order to defraud individuals of their money, police said on Wednesday. According to a senior police officer, Goa’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Ramesh Verma, and state Legislature Secretary, Namrata Ulman, filed separate cases against the unnamed accused for impersonating them.
Verma brought the complaint to the Goa police’s cybercrime unit on Tuesday. He claimed Ulman filed it on Sunday. The CEO’s personal assistant, Urmita Bhandari, filed a complaint on Verma’s behalf. She claims that the unnamed accused created a WhatsApp account for Verma and contacted everyone on his contact list, requesting financial assistance.
The accused sent messages identifying himself as the CEO and used Verma’s photograph as the display picture to demonstrate that it was his WhatsApp account, according to the official. He said Ulman’s case followed a similar strategy. Two charges against unidentified suspects have been brought by police under the Information Technology Act.
