First they tried to hack her Facebook page, then got her SIM (subscriber identity module) card blocked and now her WhatsApp account is hacked.
Yet, alert fashion designer Kirthana of Banjara Hills managed to resist all these online attacks but the feeling of insecurity still lingers. She was at her home when a stranger rang up her landline phone and sought her mobile phone number two months ago.
“Your Facebook page is being hacked madam. It doesn’t have your mobile phone number. If you give it, I’ll send a password to make it secure,” the unidentified man said over phone. Ms. Kirthana was baffled a bit initially but decided not to give the contact no and hung up.
Impersonator
Little did she realise that it was an attempt by a cyber stalker to secure her mobile phone number. Apparently to hack her fb page which she built over past several years. Four days ago, suddenly her mobile phone SIM got blocked.
One of her customers sent a WhatsApp message saying her mobile phone wasn’t working around 12.30 p.m. on September 6. She called the customer call centre of the mobile phone service provider only to be told that the SIM was blocked at her request.
Woes begin
“But I am Keerthana and I never placed any such request,” she convinced the customer care executive and got the SIM services activated again. To her shock, it was disclosed that even her alternative number too was changed. She felt that the problem was over but it actually started then.
Three hours later, her SIM card was blocked again around 3.30 p.m. With much difficulty, she got the services restored. To her dismay, it was barred again around 5.30 p.m. “It was clear that someone was deliberately targeting me but I was clueless,” the fashion designer said.
Finally she reached home from work but this time the cyber stalker successfully hacked her WhatsApp account. “My WhatsApp messages were simply disappearing. When I backed up them by resetting, it again got hacked,” she said.
This continued till the early hours of September 7. That day, she began receiving one time password on her mobile phone to access her facebook page, suggesting that someone was trying to hack it.
On the night of September 7 too, her WhatsApp account was hacked twice. She approached the Hyderabad Cyber Crime Station the next day and a FIR was issued. Ms. Kirthana got her mobile phone contact number and passwords of bank cards and other online accounts changed soon after the first time her SIM card was blocked without her knowledge. “That saved me from my banks online accounts getting hacked but sense of insecurity still remains,” she said.
