A government official working at the Sivaganga Collectorate in the designation of PA to Collector (Agriculture) was allegedly duped to the tune of Rs three lakh in an online fraud, police said.
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Following a complaint from Sharmila (54), the Sivaganga district cyber crime police have registered a case.
The complainant, it is said, had received a WhatsApp message on her mobile phone a few days ago. She had opened and clicked the link as directed by the messenger. Not knowing that a sum of Rs 10000 was being syphoned off from her bank account, the lady official had committed the same mistake many times.
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When she realised about the fraud, she had lodged a complaint.
Preliminary inquiries by the police suggested that the sender of the message lived in Jharkhand and the SIM address showed as Bihar. The bank account of the fraudster to which the money had been reportedly siphoned off had been blocked for further probe.
Another police official said that the complainant revealed that the DP of the fraudster had the picture of a top official of the Sivaganga district. Hence, she thought it was some familiar person from within the district with whom she had shared some correspondence.
The Sivaganga District SP Senthil Kumar has appealed to the public not to entertain messages from unknown numbers. Sharing PIN numbers or clicking any link as suggested from unknown callers should be avoided.