Two Hyderabad businessmen duped of Rs 22L in social media con job

HYDERABAD: Cyber fraudsters duped two city-based businessmen of Rs 11 lakh each by hacking their close contact’s WhatsApp account.
The beneficiary bank accounts are based in Delhi, north-east states, Bengaluru and Kolkata. Police have written to WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, seeking details of the fraudsters.

On May 12, Sriram of Gachibowli approached the police saying that he received a WhatsApp message from his US-based cousin Sujatha’s number seeking money for medical attention. Without calling his cousin, he transferred Rs 11 lakh to two bank accounts mentioned by the fraudster posing as his cousin. After the money transfer, Sriram called his cousin and realised that her WhatsApp account was hacked by the fraudsters and he transferred money to their bank accounts.
On May 13, Narendra of Kukatpally lodged a similar complaint stating that on May 10 he received a WhatsApp message from a US-based schoolfriend Ravi Srinivas asking for money to help a patient who needed immediate medical attention. Narendra transferred Rs 11 lakh to the bank account mentioned by the fraudsters and realised about it when he called Ravi.
Cyber crime inspector K Srinivas said the accused called the businessmen’s US-based friends and relatives from their known contact’s WhatsApp number and in the guise of adding them to a WhatsApp group, asked for an OTP received by them.
“The OTP was sent when the fraudster initiated WhatsApp installation with the victim’s phone number and when it was revealed to the fraudster, they key that in their phones and take over the WhatsApp account of the target phone number. Even if the original phone number holder tries to reinstall the WhatsApp on his handset, it takes 24 hours to activate due to the recent activation by the fraudster,” the inspector explained.