Fraudster posing as Aaditya Thackeray tries to dupe wrestler of Rs 25k

Aaditya Thackeray. File pic

Cyber fraudsters' trick of luring people by impersonating known personalities continues to thrive. After identity theft cases of senior IPS and IAS officers came to light, a cyber fraudster recently tried to dupe a wrestler from Dadar posing as Shiv Sena leader and former minister Aaditya Thackeray.

Fortunately, before transferring the money, the wrestler who is also a Yuva Sena functionary chose to enquire with Shiv Sena officials and got himself saved.

On Tuesday night, the wrestler, a resident of Worli Koliwada received messages from an unknown number who kept display picture (DP) of former minister Aaditya Thackeray along with his father Shiv Sena president and former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray. Due to the DP, the wrestler began conversing on the number as stated in the First Information Report (FIR). The imposter introduced himself as Aaditya Thackeray and referred the wrestler by his initial name Deepesh and asked whether he recognised the Shiv Sena leader or not, the wrestler quickly responded by replying "Yes I know Aaditya Thackeray ji".

Also read: Fraudster messages officials, demands gift cards in Mumbai CP's name

Soon the imposter came to the point and demanded money. He texted, he has a work and asked the wrestler whether he has a Paytm account. He further added that he had to transfer Rs 25,000 to a friend but since his account was not working asked the wrestler to send the money. The wrestler was assured that the money would be returned by tomorrow evening, as stated in the FIR.

When the imposter started asking for to transfer the money, urgently, the wrestler got suspicious and enquired with Shiv Sena secretary Suraj Chavhan who advised him approach the police.

"We have registered an offence under section sections for personating a public servant (170), cheating by personation (419), attempting to commit offence (511) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) along with section section 66 C (identity theft) and 66 D (cheating by impersonation using computer resources) of the Information Technology (IT) act and our probe is underway," said Mahesh Mugutrao, senior inspector of Dadar police station.

On Friday, an imposter similarly demanded gift cards from police officers impersonating city police chief Vivek Phansalkar. The imposter kept display picture of Mumbai police chief and made the demand. An offence has been registered at L T Marg police station while the probe is handed over to the crime branch. Last week someone tried to lure BEST employees posing as general manager of BEST as well, an offence in that regard has been registered with the Colaba police station.