A Nerul-based family has lodged a complaint with the police after their WhatsApp and Facebook accounts got hacked by unknown cyber-criminals. The fraudsters made bookings in various international hotels by impersonating the victims; they also demanded money from friends and relatives of the family stating that they were stranded abroad and were in urgent need of money.
According to the police, the complainant in the case works as an IT consultant and resides in Nerul with his wife and two children. As per the complainant, between October 17 and October 21, he received emails from different hotels in Australia, Thailand, Switzerland, Indonesia and Kuala Lumpur, informing him that they had received booking requests. The shocked complainant responded to the emails denying making any reservations and requested them to cancel the bookings.
A police officer said the complainant was informed by his relatives on October 22 that they had received messages from his wife’s Facebook account and WhatsApp number stating that the family was stranded abroad and was in urgent need of money. He informed his relatives that no such messages were sent and the accounts were probably hacked. The man also learnt that the WhatsApp accounts of his children were also hacked.
The victim, on Tuesday, registered a case with the police under sections 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 43A (compensation for failure to protect data), 66 (computer related offences), 66C (punishment for identity theft) and 66D (punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.
