EXCLUSIVE
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SHILLONG, SEP 16: A resident of Garo Hills was reportedly duped of Rs 17,000 on Saturday in a scam where fraudsters impersonated a prominent politician.
The victim told Meghalaya News 24, “I shouldn’t have clicked the link but I did and lost my money.”
This case adds to a growing number of incidents in the last two years in which politicians, bureaucrats, and officials in Meghalaya have fallen victim to cyber fraud, with scammers exploiting their public profiles to siphon money from unsuspecting individuals.
Superintendent of Police (Sadar), Pankaj Kumar Rasgania, stated that online scammers are increasingly impersonating prominent figures such as politicians, leaders, and public officials through fake WhatsApp accounts to extort money.
“All the related data related to politicians to official, these are all available in the public space on internet, on our official websites, some email IDs are also available photographs are available. So they use these websites to understand, who is the leader, who is the leader of any organisation or department and their photographs, they’ll get from there and they create WhatsApp accounts based on these data. And then they start targeting the officials of that office,”he said.
Rasgania revealed that many political leaders and officials have fallen victim to such scams. “There are a lot of cases distributed across various districts, and investigations are ongoing.”
In such WhatsApp impersonation scams, the fraudster pretends to be a well-known leader or public figure, messaging contacts with urgent requests for money. Once the funds are transferred, the scammer cuts off all communication.