Mumbai: Fraudsters trying to lure people by posing senior IPS and IAS officers

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The Mumbai Police has recently issued a warning, asking people not to fall prey to cyber frauds. The warning by the city police comes soon after the cops learnt that an unknown person has been demanding money from people by impersonating Mumbai Police commissioner, Vivek Phansalkar.

The police said that a legal action is being initiated in the matter and also suggested people to be cautious about such frauds.

The Mumbai Police Commissioner is not the only official whose identity has been used by the fraudsters for wrongful gains, few days back a fraudsters impersonated general manager of BEST and tried to lure fellow employees. Earlier the fraudsters used photograph of Mira Bhayandar - Vasai Virar (MBVV) Police Chief Sadanand Date and sought money or gift cards from police officials and from random people on social media platforms.

According to a police official, several police officials received a messages from a WhatsApp number with a display picture of Mumbai Police Commissioner asking them to arrange gift cards urgently, however the number did not belong to the police commissioner but his photo was being misused by the fraudster.

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The message that was allegedly sent by the fraudster 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 prospect I am presenting them to 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. Alright thanks a lot, Here are the details: 20 pieces of Amazon pay E gift cards with Rs10,000 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."

Soon after the police was alerted, a message was passed on by the city police, Sanjay Latkar Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations) said, "Some fraudster is sending above message, please do not fall in the trap, legal action is being taken."

On the Friday, the police registered an FIR under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections for impersonating a public servant (170), cheating by personation (419) along with section section 66 C (identity theft) of the Information Technology (IT) act was registered at the L T Marg police station while the probe being done by the Anti Extortion Cell (AEC) of the Mumbai crime branch.

The initial probe revealed that the location from where the phone was used was traced to Madhya Pradesh while the number is registered in the name of a Gwalior based person, said police officials.

Meanwhile the Colaba police on Thursday registered an offence after an imposter allegedly contacted several BEST employees and demanded money from them posing as BEST's general manager Lokesh Chandra. The fraudster kept a display picture of Chandra and tried to lure people into trap. Following the complaint of BEST employee, the Colaba police registered an offence of defamation along with relevant sections of Information Technology (IT) act.