Hyderabad: Cybercrime cops caution against friendship messages on WhatsApp

Hyderabad: The cyber fraudsters are in no way to hold back because they have got the pulse of gullible people as they know that in one way or the other they can lure the innocent and siphon off money from their accounts. Now the cyber fraudsters have started deceiving the innocent on the pretext of romantic relationships on WhatsApp calls and chats.

An issue of cyber fraud came to light when the Cyberabad cybercrime police received a complaint from a person who alleged that he was cheated to the tune of Rs 1 lakh from a person whom he assumed to be his friend.

According to cybercrime police, the complainant alleged that he used to chat with his friend in Sweden frequently. On September 9, the complainant received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number. However, the display picture was of his friend and the message read that his mother was seriously ill and he needed Rs 1 lakh immediately for her treatment. Upon noticing the message, the complainant transferred the amount without even cross checking. But later, he realised that he was cheated as he confirmed it with his genuine friend. He then filed a police complaint.

Cyberabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar said that there are a few ways of cyber fraudsters to trick people. The fraudsters make calls and send messages from anonymous numbers to people on WhatsApp with the profile of close friends and the conversation is created in an emergency situation and then amount for an emergency work is being asked. They would then extract as much money as possible from the people.

"Apart from it, the victims are targeted on the pretext of talking or meeting a woman and if the person agrees to interact with the woman, he is asked to transfer an amount as part of registration. Recently a man lost Rs 50,000 for chatting with a woman named Preethi. Initially he got a message on WhatsApp with the display picture of a woman who claimed to be arranging for friendships and when the man agreed to make a friendship, he was told to deposit the amount to make friendship with Preethi," said Shyam Babu, ACP of Cybercrime.

"After he sent the money, the fraudsters also demanded him to send a nude video of himself as Preethi would be interested in it, to which the man obliged and sent the video. Later, they started demanding more money from him. He soon realised that he was cheated, and filed a police complaint," stated the officer.