Posing as Mayor, fraudster contacts Shimla councillors

Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 19

Fraudsters today impersonated Shimla Municipal Corporation Mayor Satya Kaundal. Earlier, cyber criminals had impersonated top political leaders and bureaucrats to extract money from their colleagues and subordinates. The Mayor lodged a complaint with the police against an unknown person for impersonating her and contacting councillors and administrative officials on Whatsapp.

On Tuesday morning, a couple of councillors received some messages from an unknown phone number carrying the Mayor’s display picture. The fraudster, after enquiring about their whereabouts, sought a favour and asked if they knew about Amazon gift cards. “I knew it was some fraudster the moment I received the messages, as I had spoken to the Mayor regarding some work just five minutes ago,” said Simi Nanda, Nabha councillor. “On Truecaller, the phone number showed as registered in Tamil Nadu. I immediately called up the Mayor’s PA and also made a verbal complaint to the police,” she added.

A little later, Kaithu councillor Sunil Dhar was also contacted on the Whatsapp. “The caller enquired about my whereabouts and a few other things. The conversation was cut short before he could ask for any favour probably because Simi Nanda had already informed the police and other members of the councillors’ group,” he said.

Stunned by the development, the Mayor immediately sent a written complaint to the Shimla SP. “I was shocked when the matter was brought to my notice. I immediately filed a complaint with the police about an unknown person impersonating me on Whatsapp,” she said.

A couple of days ago, several senior bureaucrats received Whatsapp messages from top political leaders and other bureaucrats seeking money through Amazon gift cards. The police had then said that cyber criminals were using a double server proxy for calling or messaging from Whatsapp to avoid identification.

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