The Meghalaya police today reissued its warnings over impersonation-based fraud being perpetrated over WhatsApp.
Several instances have come about in recent days with miscreants claiming to be high-profile individuals, including the Speaker of the Assembly Metbah Lyngdoh and cabinet ministers Sanbor Shullai and James Sangma. They then send messages impersonating these people asking for the purchase of Amazon e-gift cards.
This sort of scam could also be used by fraudsters to target employees of a company. In this case, they would masquerade as the employees’ superior, police said.
“These impersonators in the pretext of attending an emergency meeting, have been sending gift card links from amazon.in website to WhatsApp users, requesting the user to purchase the e-gift card. The fraudsters will send gift card links pre-loaded with an amount which may be up to Rs 10,000 and thereafter, will convince their target to purchase the gift card, and to share the claim code via WhatsApp or email,” police said through a release.
Anyone who has received such fraudulent messages can report the crime to the nearest police station or to the Cyber Crime Wing of Meghalaya police or send the same to the Meghalaya police WhatsApp number 6033090114.
