WhatsApp account of Odisha's Top IT officer got hacked
An unknown cybercriminal allegedly hacked the WhatsApp number of Odisha Computer Application Centre’s CEO Manoj Kumar Pattnaik, impersonated him and demanded money from the contact list of the victim by sending distress messages. He is also the Additional Secretary of the State Electronics and Information Technology (E&IT) Department,
Assuming the messages as genuine, some of the close contacts of Pattnaik transferred around Rs 7 lakh to the bank and UPI accounts of the fraudster. Sources said five persons together sent the amount to the cybercriminal.
“I received an unknown call on my WhatsApp on Tuesday afternoon. The caller did not utter a word and I hung up after around 30 seconds,” said Patnaik.
Patnaik realised the hacking of his WhatsApp account when some of his friends told him that they had received a message from him asking for the money for his treatment. Soon, he was flooded with phone calls from his contacts, including his office staff who sent money to the fraudster.
“I will lodge a formal complaint with the police on Wednesday. Some of my contacts, who became victims of the phishing message, have already lodged complaints with the Saheed Nagar police here,” Pattnaik told TOI.
Following the incident, the E&IT department has started sanitising people about cyber frauds. “The department has issued an advisory on WhatsApp phishing. Hackers target victims via WhatsApp voice calls or suspicious links on social media, SMS, WhatsApp. By adopting proper precautionary measures, hackers can be kept at bay without uninstalling the App,” the E&IT department tweeted.
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