Cyber fraudsters are using various methods to loot unsuspecting victims of their hard earned money.
These miscreants try to create a sense of fear by threatening fake police cases to alluring people to invest in fraudulent stock market platforms.
In July this year, the Meghalaya police had alerted citizens from scammers who are sending emails/messages that appear to be from the Desk of the Director General of Police, Meghalaya, attempting to deceive people and extort money.
Meghalaya police from time to time issue advisories to the citizens to be alert from online fraudsters but many people of the state are being targeted by fraudsters with impunity using different methods.
According to the police, the cybercrime complaints received in the state till June 4 this year was 2,564.
As per the Meghalaya police website, in one incident, a resident of a locality in Shillong lodged a complaint that on December 4, he received one anonymous phone call, wherein the caller identified himself as one ‘Raj’, claimed to be an ‘inquiry officer’ from ‘TRAI Department’ and attempted to dupe him.
In another case, an associate Professor of a University in Shillong lodged a complaint that on November 4, 2024, he noticed a video clip in ‘Facebook’, wherein the Proprietor of Infosys Pvt. Ltd., shared information about an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based investment and subsequent high returns.
Following this, the complainant invested Rs. 21,044 online, in the name of his wife and later realised that he had been cheated.
In a latest incident in a complaint lodged with Lumdiengjri police station an individual lodged a FIR that the person’s whatsapp number has been hacked.
As per the FIR the issue started when the individual received a message from a number asking for money on November 26.
“I received a link on my whatsapp number and I mistakenly clicked on the link. After clicking on the link my mobile phone suddenly switched off by itself and was not turning on back for hours,” the complainant stated.
The person stated that the mobile phone started to work again after at least 24 hours when the individual tried to charge and change SIM cards.
“I tried to uninstall and install back my whatsapp but when I tried to log in an error message showed that I am unable to receive verification since my number is already registered with whatsapp,” the complainant stated.
In the FIR the individual stated that the whatsapp account has been hacked and the complainant is worried that that the account will be misused by hackers for some criminal activity.
