NEW DELHI: A self-proclaimed social media influencer and a modelling photographer have been arrested for allegedly hacking into the Instagram account of a model through a phishing link and then duping her contacts by asking them for money to meet an emergency.According to DCP (southwest) Manoj C, the accused sent a malicious link to the woman asking her to enter a modelling contest. Her password was compromised when she clicked on the link to enrol her name.The arrested men have been identified as Gaurav Rajput (20) from UP and Sumit Panwar (22) from Palam. “Three mobile phones, along with three SIM cards allegedly used for hacking and accessing her Instagram ID, have been recovered,” the DCP said.Police received a complaint from the woman on February 6. Some of her friends had sent money to the UPI IDs sent by the fraudsters using her Instagram account. “A notice was served to Instagram and the complainant’s account was blocked on the same day to prevent further misuse. Notices were sent to the banks concerned for the details of beneficiary accounts. As per the bank’s reply, the cheated amount was first credited to BharatPe’s nodal account and then to the beneficiary accounts.”Notices were sent to Google and Instagram to provide information about IP addresses. According to the reply received from Meta platforms, the mobile number linked to the hacked ID was in the name of Rajput and Panwar.A team led by SHO Ajay Kumar Singh conducted a raid and arrested the accused from a hotel in Mahipalpur. Rajput has over 2,000 followers and makes reels to earn money. Panwar claims to be helping models prepare portfolios. To earn easy money, they sent the link to the complainant on the pretext of voting and entering a modelling competition. They asked for small amounts from her friends thinking that she will not make any complaint as the amount was less, police said.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/2-hack-models-insta-account-dupe-contacts/articleshow/97889091.cms