A minor girl from Andheri was shocked after she started receiving obscene messages on WhatsApp from her own alternate number on Wednesday. The police, after investigating, arrested a Dharavi resident who allegedly hacked her WhatsApp account and used it to send obscene content to her other number.
According to the Andheri police, the victim, a college student, started receiving obscene pictures and messages on Wednesday morning. She was further stunned to see that the number from which she was receiving the objectionable content was none other than her own alternate number. She rushed to the police station and registered a complaint.
"While making inquiries with the victim, we realised that she had received a call from an unknown person three days ago, who claimed to be a professor at her college. He told her that he was creating a WhatsApp group for all students and that she would get a One Time Password (OTP), which he asked her to share with him. The victim obeyed and the offence started soon after. We realised that the accused had hacked her WhatsApp account and was using it to harass her," said an officer with the Andheri police station.
A relatively new form of cybercrime, WhatsApp hacking can be done by entering the target's number on a handset and obtaining the OTP from the target through fraudulent means. Once this is done, the target is locked out of their own WhatsApp account and the accused gets complete control over it as well as access to the target's contact list.
"We analysed the technical details of the hacking and using this information, we traced the crime to one Ravi Dandu (30), a resident of Dharavi. We picked him up and, after initial inquiries confirmed his involvement in the offence, placed him under arrest. We are still investigating to find out how he got the victim's number," the officer said.
Dandu has been charged with stalking and outraging a woman's modesty under the Indian Penal Code, along with relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and the Information Technology Act, officers said.
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