Mumbai: CEO of company lodges complaint after impersonator tries to dupe him

A 37-year-old Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a known NBFC company has recently lodged a complaint with the police stating that a fraudster had impersonated the managing director of the company and directed him to send eight e-gift cards. The fraudster had used the photograph of the MD and her businessman husband as the WhatsApp display picture, in order to trick the victim. The victim, however, found the entire conversation suspicious and checked with his boss, who confirmed that the number did not belong to her.

According to the Dadar police, the complainant is a resident of Prabhadevi and has been working as the CEO of the company, having its registered office at Peddar Road, for the past five years. Recently, the victim had received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number, followed by a voice call which the victim skipped to answer. On checking the DP of the said number, the victim saw her MD along with her husband in it. The victim and the imposter then conversed over the chat for some time. The imposter then sent a message to the victim informing him he needs to carry out an important task.

"I need you to purchase some gift cards. There are some prospects I need to have sent to. I will reimburse you. The denomination I want on each card is Rs 10,000 eight pieces in total. Have it shared with me via a link after purchasing," stated one of the messages. The victim found something suspicious and cross-checked with his boss if the said WhatsApp number was hers. Once it was confirmed that somebody was impersonating the boss of the victim, he confronted the imposter. He then even called the said number, but the call was not responded to, police said.

The victim then approached the police and got a criminal offence registered in the matter last week. The police have registered a case under sections 417 (cheating), 419 (cheating by personation), 511 (attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or another imprisonment) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.