A 33-year-old scientist from Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) became the latest victim of cyber fraud when she received a mail purported to be from ICMR's director demanding favours. As soon as the mail was received on Tuesday morning the complainant sent Rs 1.10 lakh in the form of gift cards as demanded by the fraudster. Hours later, the ICMR's director clarified on their WhatsApp group that it’s a fraud and not to fall for it. Following the complaint the Bhoiwada police registered an offence and began their investigation.
According to the police, on Tuesday morning the complainant received a email from an ID similar to that of her director's, in the mail, " Hello, I need a favor from you right now kindly email me back as soon as possible so I can explain much better regards," said the 'director'. Believing the mail was sent from director herself the complainant was quick to respond and asked her what help she wanted. The fraudster then demanded to send three gift cards of Rs 10,000 each by claiming her debit card is not working, as demanded complainant sent the gift cards.
Minutes later the complainant received another mail from the same ID in which her 'director' demanded five more gift card this time for her friends and three more sometime later. Expecting the 'director' in need of money, the complaint sent the gift cards.
Hours later, the director in their WhatsApp group wrote a message addressing to other members that someone is sending mail to others on her behalf and making monetary demands and asked the members to not to fell for it. Reading the message the complainant realised that she has been duped and approached the police.
"We have registered an offence under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections for
cheating by personation (419) and cheating (420) along with section 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation using computer resources) of the Information Technology act, " said Vinod Kamble, senior inspector of Bhoiwada police station.
