Bengaluru: Former JD(S) MLC HM Ramesh Gowda on Sunday fell prey to cybercrooks who impersonated an IPS officer and a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) officer to pocket nearly Rs 1.3 lakh.
According to the complaint filed by Gowda, a resident of Byraveshwara Layout near Hennur Bande, with Hennur police, the fraud happened between 10am and 4pm.
The fraudsters initiated the scam by sending a message on Facebook Messenger. They created a fake Facebook account in the name of IPS officer Chetan R, who is serving as commissioner of the department of youth empowerment and sports. Gowda and Chetan are friends on Facebook. Ramesh didn’t know that the fraudsters had created a fake profile in his name and were using his photo as a profile picture.
“Soon after I replied to the message, the fraudsters told me that one of his friends working in the Indian Army got transferred to another city and wanted to sell his furniture. He suggested I could buy the furniture if I was interested,” Gowda, who runs a school, told TOI.
Gowda thought he would buy the furniture and use it in his school. Then the fraudster, in the name of Chetan, asked him to share his WhatsApp number. Sometime after he shared his number, he received a message from 8761856961. The sender introduced himself as Santosh Kumar, an officer in the CRPF, and Chetan had referred Gowda to him. As Gowda already interacted with the Chetan profile on Messenger, he replied to him. Kumar had a display picture of an officer receiving a President Medal. He sent a photo of a few pieces of furniture, such as chairs, a table, and others. He even sent the purchase receipt in the name of the Army. Gowda checked all the bills and believed him.
The fraudster promised to send all the furniture to Gowda’s place and asked him to make the payment as he needed money for some emergency. Initially, he paid Rs 75,000 from his account. Later, he transferred money from the accounts of his sister and sister-in-law. After he paid nearly Rs 1.3 lakh, the fraudster asked for more money. It was only then that Gowda suspected something was fishy. He called Chetan R on his mobile number, who told him that it was a cyber fraud and asked him to immediately contact the helpline (1930) and police.
By the time Ramesh approached police, the fraudster had deleted the photos and messages from WhatsApp. The amount was transferred to an account in one Rahul Singh’s name. “The fraudsters used the same profile picture from my Facebook account in the fake profile,” Chetan said. Chetan is out of the city; he will report the fake profile to the cybercrime police after he returns.
A senior officer said a case has been registered under the Information Technology Act. “We are coordinating with the bank to freeze the amount,” he added.
