THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A cyber scamster who tried to dupe a woman on Wednesday was in for a rude shock. For the person he tried to pick on turned out to be a Kerala Police officer.
The scamster tried his luck by contacting the official mobile phone number of the police media centre located in the police headquarters, claiming that he was calling from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The call was attended by woman battalion constable Shibina S, who was well aware of the fraudulent ways being used by the scamsters to con people.
The man tried to trick her into believing that her SIM card would be inactivated within two hours as it was misused. However, the officer encountered the conman with panache and punched a hole in his narrative, finally forcing him to concede that he was indeed a conman.
“I was on duty at the media centre and got the call by 10am on Wednesday. From the onset, I knew it was a scam call but decided to play along out of curiosity,” Shibina said.
Shibina, who is a postgraduate in English literature, used her mastery over the language to upset the plans of the caller. She turned the tables on the caller by demanding him to tell her aadhaar number, which he failed to do.
She then mocked the way he spoke, saying that he did not appear to be part of TRAI. She then told him that he was talking to a police officer, which apparently shook him a bit.
Shibina said being part of the media centre, which has been spreading awareness messages on cyber fraud, she could immediately identify that the call was a spam. Later, the matter was reported to the cyber police.