Fraudsters attempt to extort officials using fake WhatsApp account of collector

Sircilla/Bhupalpally: In an incident of cybercriminals targeting senior officials, a person impersonating Rajanna Sircilla district collector Anurag Jayanti created a WhatsApp account, with Jayanti’s picture in the display, and demanded officials send him money.

One of the officials, on receiving the message, immediately called the collector, following which the fraud attempt came to the officials’ notice. Jayanti immediately informed officials and took to Twitter asking people not to respond to such requests made from an account with his picture.

The incident comes close on the heels of a hoax caller claiming to be a DCP with the anti-corruption bureau and trying to extort mandal revenue officers.

Jayanti, however, is not the first collector to be targeted. Previously, criminals impersonating Jayashankar Bhupalpally district collector Bhavesh Mishra, using the same modus operandi, had coerced horticulture officer Akbar Hussain into sending Rs 50,000 and used the same to purchase vouchers from e-commerce website Amazon.