Three held for hacking WhatsApp accounts under pretext of Omicron Booster Dose

New Delhi, Jan 31 (UNI) Three people who were allegedly involved in WhatsApp hacking under the pretext of Omicron Booster Dose facilitation were arrested from Uttar Pradesh’s Agra. Trio have been identified as Manish Kumar, Rohit Singh and Kaushlendra Singh Tomer. Eight accounts, four debit cards, one cheque book and six mobile phones were recovered from them. The gang of cyber cheats, who used to hack WhatsApp accounts of the victims by striking a communication on Omicron booster dose. They used to pretend as Government officials and would thereby lure the victims to share OTP through conference calls. They would drop distress messages to the contact list and would induce the important contacts of the victim to part away with their money, said KPS Malhotra, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO), Delhi Police. A person lodged a complaint with IFSO Unite of Delhi Police about cyber fraud happening with him. The complainant told police that he received a call from an unknown number, the caller informed that after both doses of the vaccine he has to take a booster dose. The caller told the complainant to take the incoming call on conference and then after getting WhatsApp account change code, his WhatsApp was hacked and his friends and relatives received several messages. The brother of the complainant deposited Rs 50 thousand in the fraudsters’ account through UPI. During the probe, it was found that 20 more such complaints were lodged on the cyber-crime portal pertaining to this network. On the complaint, a case was registered under appropriate sections of law at the Special Cell police station, said Malhotra. During investigation, technical and financial analysis was undertaken and the main caller was identified as Manish Kumar. On this basis, a raid was conducted at Agra and he along with two of his associates, Rohit Singh and Kaushlendra Singh Tomer, were arrested. During investigation, Manish told police that about one year ago, he learnt techniques of WhatsApp hacking from YouTube and thereafter he used to cheat innocent persons on different pretexts. At this time of Covid Pandemic, he used to call the victims personating himself from the Vaccination Department and would ask the victims to fix dates for the booster dose. To circumvent the possibility of the victim being aware of the scam, he would induce the victim to make a conference call rather than getting the code on the message. This would prevent the victim from analyzing the situation in the spur of the moment and while listening to the conference call, he would get access to the OTP of Whatsapp account change. Once the account of the victim would come under the control of fraudsters, they would send distress messages to their relatives and induce them to send money through various financial channels, said Malhotra.