ROURKELA: Sundargarh Collector Nikhil Pavan Kalyan has become the latest victim of cyber fraud network with a miscreant opening a fake Facebook account in his name to dupe gullible users.
The Collector on Friday evening came across the fake profile through which, the fraudster demanded a mobile phone from a local Facebook user.
Kalyan drew attention of the Sundargarh SP Soumya Mishra and got the account blocked. He said the account might have been opened three to four days back and cyber cell of Sundargarh Police is on the job of tracking the con man.
In a post in his original Facebook account, the Collector warned users of the fake account and urged them not entertain any demands.
“Seems that someone already tried to misuse the profile for favours! Request everyone, especially from Sundargarh and Rourkela, and all other places, not entertain any favour, monetary or otherwise.
"I don’t ask and will never ask. Its against my conscience”, he wrote on the social media site.
The Collector also shared screenshots of the Facebook chat between the con man and a user where the former is asking for a mobile phone.
The modus operandi of the miscreant involved using the fake Facebook profile to send friend request to trap people, who would immediately accept the requests thinking it was from the Collector.
It came to light that during chat through the fake account, the miscreants identifying himself as the Collector would ask for costly gifts or financial favours.
To influence the users further, the fraudster used to say that he was out of Sundargarh district and would return the money on return.
The fraudster initially asked to deliver the gift to the Collector’s residence and immediately after, ask them to deliver at a certain location in Bargarh district through courier.
PayTM customer loses Rs 50,000 in cyber fraud
A PayTM customer Garima Agarwal of Bisra block in Sundargarh district recently found herself on the receiving end of cyber fraud as Rs 50,000 was siphoned off from her Axis Bank account.
The victim in a complaint lodged with Bisra police station on Saturday stated her relatives had made an online purchase and as the delivery was delayed they asked her to track it through the courier company, DTDC. She said through internet search she found a mobile number (8343807935).
Garima said one of the fraudsters posing as a courier agent asked her to make a small payment using the PayTM mobile app service which was linked to her Axis Bank account. She then received a web site link through another mobile number (7903912089) and was told to fill in the required information.
After that she received another message and was asked to forward the same to another mobile number (7304499902).
Garima said she complied and received a message from Axis Bank that Rs 50,000 was credited to her account. Later, she received more messages from the bank stating that Rs 50,000, Rs 20,000, Rs 10,000 and Rs 20,000 were debited from her account in four transactions.
Garima said it appeared the fraudsters linked her PayTM account with theirs and carried out the fraudulent transactions.