Police have registered a case against an unidentified hacker after a wrestler filed a complaint that a cyber fraud, impersonating Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray, contacted him on WhatsApp and tried to extract money from him.
Worli-Koliwada resident Dipesh Jambhale, 24, has won medals for the country in a few international wrestling competitions, and has also been felicitated by former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and Aaditya. Jambhale is also an office-bearer of Yuva Sena, the youth wing of the party.
According to the complainant, on August 23, he received a WhatsApp message from an unknown mobile number with a photo of Uddhav and Aaditya as its display picture.
“The unidentified person, posing as Aaditya Thackeray, sent a message that he needed to transfer some money to a friend but his net banking was not working. He then sought ₹25,000 from him. The sender insisted that Jambhale should transfer the money via Paytm to a number and promised to return it the next morning,” the FIR said.
Jambhale soon figured out that the caller was part of a gang and informed Suraj Chavan, a senior functionary in Sena. He then went to Dadar police station to lodge a complaint.
“We have registered a case under sections 511 [attempt to commit an offence] and 419 [cheating by impersonation] of the Indian Penal Code and 66C [identity theft] and 66D [cheating by personation by using computer resource] of the Information Technology Act against the user of the unknown number,” Mahesh Mugutrao, senior inspector of Dadar police station, said.
The police are trying to trace the accused by analysing the call detail record and internet activities on the mobile number.
Investigation has revealed that after impersonating Aaditya, the hacker used the same number to pose as one DJ Akash Phaltan, a resident of Satara, who has over 1.71 lakh followers on Instagram. The DJ has posted several screenshots on his social media handle alerting his followers and friends about the fraud.
On Friday, a cyber fraud impersonated Mumbai police commissioner Vivek Phansalkar and sent messages to many senior police officers on his contact list.