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Bhopal/Damoh, Oct 24 (IANS) In a brazen bid to exploit trust and extort money from unknown contacts, cyber criminals allegedly created a fake WhatsApp account in the name of Damoh District Collector Sudhir Kochhar, using fake documents and Vietnamese country code.
This audacious plan targeting the personal network of the Collector’s friends and associates was foiled before it turned into a full-fledged cyber crisis due to the alert intervention of the district administration and police.
Armed with the collector’s profile picture and official details, the fraudulent account began sending urgent messages demanding financial assistance under false pretenses – ranging from fabricated emergencies to urgent “official” transfers.
The recipients, believing the pleas made by the trusted IAS officer, were moments away from compliance when the ruse was revealed.
Collector Kochhar, upon receiving information about this discrepancy from an alert contact, wasted no time in alerting Superintendent of Police Shrutkirti Somvanshi.
“As soon as the information came to light, my e-governance and cyber teams swung into action,” Kochhar said at a press conference at the SP office.
“We detected the suspicious activity within a matter of hours, preventing any financial loss.”
Invoking the provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Indian Code of Justice for attempted identity theft and fraud, a formal complaint was immediately lodged at the Damoh SP office against an unknown culprit.
The cyber cell of Madhya Pradesh Police in Damoh, a special unit equipped with advanced forensic equipment, has since launched a meticulous investigation.
Investigators are examining digital footprints including IP logs, device metadata and forged credentials used to register an account through WhatsApp’s Vietnamese (+84) prefix – a common ploy to evade Indian jurisdiction and identification algorithms.
“The use of international codes by fraudsters underlines their sophistication, but our team is collaborating with national cyber agencies to expose them,” SP Somvanshi confirmed, stressing on round-the-clock surveillance.
This incident is not an isolated skirmish in the growing cyber war in Madhya Pradesh.
Cyber fraud across the state is set to increase by 45 per cent in 2025, with impersonation scams claiming losses of over Rs 150 crore, according to Madhya Pradesh Police data.
High-profile targets like district collectors are the main victims, as seen in the recent cases of neighboring Gwalior and Sagar, where fake profiles duped officials into transfers of lakhs.
At the national level, similar tricks have ensnared bureaucrats in Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, where fraudsters posed as seniors to siphon off funds through WhatsApp.
Underscoring the seriousness, Collector Kochhar issued a strict public advisory: “I do not hold any personal ID on any social media or messaging platform. Ignore any account that claims to be mine.”
He urged citizens to refrain from engaging in unsolicited requests for money, sharing sensitive details or initiating transactions, calling such offers the hallmarks of cyber entrapment.
“Report anomalies immediately to 1930, the National Cyber Helpline or your local police. Vigilance is our collective shield,” he urged.
–IANS
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