Hacker shuts Mumbai jewellery firm’s Facebook page

An unidentified hacker last week shut down the Facebook page of an online portal that sells jewellery after the firm refused to pay up the money he had allegedly demanded. The police said, on November 1, an unidentified person called up the office of Matchless Jewellery for Less LLP, which is based in Kandivali East, and claimed to be an officer from the cyber police.

The police added that the caller threatened to “hijack” the Facebook page of the firm’s brand, JLF-Jewellery for Less, through which it sells imitation jewellery, unless he was paid Rs 70,000. The firm’s page has 1.1 million followers.

An officer at Kurar police station said when the company refused to pay up, the accused person hacked the Facebook page and called up the firm to inform it about his actions.

Kumar Varandani, who owns the brand, said the hacker got hold of the password of the page’s administrator and used that to suspend it. “We informed the cyber cell of the Mumbai Police the same day and registered a case with the local police station the next day,” Varandani said. Udaykumar Rajeshirke, Senior Inspector, Kurar police station, said an investigation is on to identify the hacker.

Kurar police station has booked an individual for committing extortion under the Indian Penal Code and for causing damage to a computer system, under the Information Technology Act.

Varandani said he complained to Facebook on the day of the incident. “This is a huge loss to us. The Facebook page is one of our business channels and it is on hold until Facebook conducts its internal investigation. We are facing losses between Rs 40,000 and Rs 50,000 daily,” he said.