KOCHI: After music composer Jerry Amaldev, Aluva MLA Anwar Sadath’s family was targeted by cyber fraudsters who claimed that his daughter was detained in New Delhi in a criminal case.
Seeking an investigation into the incident, Anwar has apprised Kerala Police Cyber Operations SP Hari Shankar of the matter.
According to Anwar, the incident occurred on Thursday at 10.45am. “My wife received a WhatsApp call from an unidentified number. The caller took the name of my daughter studying at a college in New Delhi. The caller introduced himself as an officer with the Delhi police. The profile picture of the caller was also that of an IPS officer. He claimed that my daughter was arrested in a criminal case. The conversation was in Hindi and my wife couldn’t understand him properly. However, she panicked after hearing that our daughter was arrested. She cut the call and contacted me,” Anwar told TNIE.
Soon Anwar dialled his daughter, who told him that she was safe in New Delhi and that nobody arrested her. Realising that it was a cheating attempt by cyber fraudsters, Anwar decided to approach the cyber police.
“People should be aware of such fraud. However, my major concern is how these persons received information about my wife. How did they know the name of my daughter and that she was living in New Delhi? These aspects should be investigated and the people behind it should be brought before the law. We are ready to file a complaint, if the police agree to investigate the matter,” he said.
Recently, Jerry Amaldev received a call claiming to be from a CBI officer. He was told that an investigation was carried out against him in a money-laundering incident and that his bank transactions had to be verified. He was asked to transfer all the amount in the bank to a specific bank account. However, because of the timely intervention of bank staff, he could not send the money. Only then did he realise that it was a cheating attempt.