NEW DELHI: A judge and a city doctor have become the latest victims of cybercrime in the capital. In one case, cybercrooks demanded money from the contacts of a judge after hacking into his Facebook ID. In the other incident, the criminals duped a doctor using a malicious online wallet voucher. Police have begun investigation into the incidents and are likely to make a breakthrough soon, an official said. The IP addresses used by the scammers have been located and their details sought from the internet service provider, sources said. In the first incident, crooks hacked into the Facebook ID of additional district and sessions judge, stole information, made a new ID and added his contacts to the same. Thereafter, they demanded money from them on different pretexts. The judge was shocked to have received calls and messages from his friends and family in different parts of India asking why he required the money. It is unclear as of now if any of the contacts paid money to the hacker believing it was for the judge. The judge contacted the police and gave printouts of his real ID, the fake ID and the messages that his contacts had received. Cops registered a case and a team was formed to catch the culprits. Initial leads suggest that a group of African-origin scammers based in India could be behind the incident. In the other case, a doctor in Patel Nagar wanted to sell her old dining table and had put up an advertisement on “Facebook Marketplace”. The crooks struck a deal with her for Rs 12,000 and sent her vouchers on PayTM, using which they siphoned off close to Rs 88,000. In her complaint, the doctor said that the crook first told her that he would send Re 1 to check if the payment was going through and, then, sent her a voucher after she received Re 1 in her wallet. The crook asked her to fill in Rs 12,000 as the amount in the voucher and type her PIN to receive the amount. The voucher, however, was not for crediting the money, but for payment to the hacker from the victim. As soon as the victim keyed in her PIN, the money got deducted from her account. The scammer made the doctor repeat the step twice, claiming the money was not going through. As the doctor’s wallet was linked to her account, Rs 36,000 and Rs 40,000 got deducted in the subsequent attempts. By the time she saw the bank’s text messages on her phone, the hacker had disconnected the call and switched off his phone. Seeing the modus operandi, cops suspect a Jamtara or Mewat-affiliated gang could be behind the incident.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/judge-and-doctor-fall-prey-to-cyber-attacks-in-2-cases/articleshow/96325781.cms