CHENNAI: A new modus operandi of cybercriminals, involving taking control of victims’ WhatsApp accounts, has claimed a string of victims, the latest being Shobu Yarlagadda, producer of the 2015 Telugu film ‘Baahubali’, National Award-winning cinematographer Santosh Sivan and one of his assistants.
A complaint regarding the matter has been filed with the Tamil Nadu police’s cyber crime wing and also in the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal. Further investigation is under way.
Yarlagadda first flagged the incident in a post on X on Thursday night. Sivan too made a post on his Instagram on Friday morning stating, “Please don’t respond to any messages from me, it’s a scam.”
According to sources, the cybercriminals take control of a victim’s WhatsApp account by attempting to register it on a new device and obtaining the six-digit registration code sent via SMS by WhatsApp to the victim’s phone through social engineering — manipulating victims into giving up sensitive information voluntarily. After gaining control of a victim’s account, they would message and attempt to hack the victim’s contacts.
For instance, once the scamsters gained access to Sivan’s WhatsApp account, they attempted to register one of his assistants’ account on a new device. They then messaged the assistant pretending to be Sivan, using a similar pattern of words, requesting the verification code sent to his phone. Once he sent them the code, the scamsters gained access and he got locked out of his WhatsApp account.
The victims usually get locked out of their accounts for at least 12 hours. Although WhatsApp states on its official website that a person accessing the same account on another device cannot read past conversations, victims are still worried about their personal information and data falling into the hands of the scamsters.
In this instance, scamsters attempted to gain control of WhatsApp accounts of several other friends and contacts of Yarlagadda, Sivan and the assistant, which include top names across the Tamil and Malayalam film industries, by sending them similar messages.
An attempt by one of Sivan’s relatives to warn people on a group chat regarding the incident was deleted by the scamsters in control of the assistant’s account as he was one of the group’s administrators. Later, the group’s settings were changed to allow only the administrators, in effect the scamsters, to send messages to the group. Sources said the scamsters have also started making requests for money to friends and family members of the victims using their WhatsApp accounts.
TN CYBER CRIME WING WARNS PEOPLE ABOUT CYBER SLAVERY & JUMPED DEPOSIT SCAMS
Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Cyber Crime Wing has issued a warning about two types of cyber scams that have been happening in the state. The first is cyber slavery where unauthorised recruiters operating through social media lure job seekers with promises of high-paying jobs abroad.
The public is advised to only trust agencies authorised by the Protector of Emigrants (PoE), Ministry of External Affairs, verify recruiters via eMigrate portal. The PoE in Chennai shared 128 unauthorised recruiter URLs, which the police took down.
The second scam is the Jumped Deposit Scam, where fraudsters target UPI users by sending a small, genuine deposit (e.g., `5,000) to their account, creating a false sense of legitimacy. The scamster then initiates a larger withdrawal request. When you check your balance and enter your PIN, you unknowingly authorise the withdrawal.