HYDERABAD: Hyderabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar has issued an urgent advisory regarding a sophisticated WhatsApp impersonation scam targeting the top brass of large corporations. The fraud specifically aims at CEOs, CFOs, and accountants, exploiting remote access to corporate systems to facilitate massive financial thefts.
On Saturday, the Commissioner took to X (formerly Twitter) to reveal that cyber fraudsters are infiltrating office computers by sending malicious phishing links to official email addresses. Once clicked, these links install malware that grants attackers full remote control over the system.
The attackers then exploit active WhatsApp Web sessions to send misleading messages to accountants while posing as the company’s CEO or CFO. Using social engineering tactics, they claim to be in urgent meetings and unable to take calls, tricking staff into transferring crores of rupees to fraudulent accounts. Since the messages originate from the actual WhatsApp accounts of top executives, employees often process the payments believing them to be genuine.
With several such cases reported recently within the Hyderabad Commissionerate jurisdiction, the Commissioner urged companies to remain highly vigilant. He emphasised that staff should never blindly trust financial requests received on WhatsApp and must directly call the concerned person to verify the authenticity of any message before making a transaction.
Companies have been advised to ensure that high-quality firewalls and antivirus software are installed on all office systems. Additionally, users are encouraged to log out of WhatsApp Web after every use.
A cybercrime official told TNIE that four companies recently lost crores of rupees after falling victim to this impersonation fraud.
Victims of cyber-fraud are urged to immediately call the 1930 helpline or file a complaint at http://cybercrime.gov.in.