Fraudsters were found to be using the names of a High Court judge and the Chief Principal Commissioner of Central Tax to run an Amazon gift card scam.
High Court Registrar (Administration) M.C. Chandrashekhar Reddy, on behalf of HC Judge B. Veerappa, filed a complaint with the Central Cybercrime Police asking them to track the conman who, posing as the judge, was trying to cheat people by offering gift card vouchers .
Based on the complaint, the police have registered an FIR against the unknown person on Saturday charging him under Section 66C (fraudulently or dishonestly make use of the electronic signature, password or any other unique identification feature of any other person) of the IT Act and efforts are on to trace him.
The incident came to light when the accused, using his mobile with the display picture (DP) of the judge, sent a message to the number of the Assistant Secretary of Karnataka State Legal Services Authority asking him to buy the gift vouchers. He brought it to the notice of the authorities concerned. The police are now trying to track down the accused through his mobile number.
In a similar incident, Aishvarya Goel, from the office of the Principal Chief Commissioner, Central Tax, GST, filed a complaint with the East Division Cybercrime Police recently that an unknown person created a fake WhatsApp account using the details of the Principal Chief Commissioner, Ranjana Jha, and has been sending messages to officials of the Central Tax Office asking them to buy Amazon gift coupons.
Earlier, in June this year, a conman copied the name and photograph of Chandrashekhar Kambar, Jnanpith awardee and president of Sahitya Akademi, to send messages to his friends using a mobile number.
The accused was asking for financial help from Mr. Kambar’s friends and also asking them to buy Amazon gift vouchers. The South Cybercrime Police are probing this case.
