Cyber criminals lure officers to part ways with Rs 1.25 lakh

HYDERABAD: Not just civilians, cyber criminals are now also targeting senior officials of the Telangana government and the police. This was made clear with the arrest of two youths, 19-year-old Raghav Appu from Karnataka and Anand Kumar, 21, from Bihar who used social media applications to dupe junior-level government officials to the tune of Rs 1.25 lakh by luring them to buy Amazon gift cards.

According to police, the duo created a WhatsApp account with the display image of IAS officers Aravind Kumar and Divya Devarajan and messaged the junior officers after obtaining their mobile numbers online. In their message, the duo said they were not in a state to take calls and being in an emergency, they need their Amazon gift cards to be recharged to buy some gifts for the office.

Two unnamed junior officials fell prey to the fraud and pumped in Rs 1.25 lakh. According to police, the two accused had joined a group on social media app Telegram and came in contact with some Nigerians who devised the scam for the duo, on a 20 per cent commission basis.

Once a victim recharges them, these Amazon gift vouchers are up for sale for a discount of 30 per cent through a website called paxful.com. Indians in touch with these Nigerians in turn purchase them and resell them at 10 per cent discount, thus making a 20 per cent profit. In a recent incident where the display picture of DGP Mahender Reddy was used to persuade cops to send money is still under investigation.