Kolkata: Two doctors, both residents of a posh south Kolkata neighbourhood, fell prey to a WhatsApp hacking scam late on Friday. Investigators said they were victims of an organized racket that targeted one person and then the other using the former’s account. While cops at the divisional cyber cells have been able to restore the hacked accounts, no one has been arrested yet.
There was a similar hacking case involving another doctor who had travelled to Munich.
In the first case, an acquaintance of the doctor had travelled to Riyadh. Upon his return to India on Friday, he received a call and the caller claimed to be an immigration officer of the country that he had recently visited. The caller said that there were certain issues pertaining to his departure to India and sent an OTP, asking him to share the code to settle the matter. Once the OTP was shared, his WhatsApp account got compromised and the hacker had access to his contacts.
“By 10.20 pm, the victims informed us that they received a WhatsApp message from their mutual friend informing them that he was facing a problem with his account. The message also asked them to share their OTPs so that the issue can be resolved. After they did as they were instructed, the hackers began controlling the WhatsApp accounts through this chain of messages. Later, the hackers also sent messages seeking monetary aid to the contacts of the three victims,” said an officer.
Kolkata Police stated that they had initially begun receiving complaints of WhatsApp hacking scams during Covid. “There was a lull of several months before this modus operandi picked up pace again,” said an investigating officer. Police said they have received a written complaint and multiple online complaints in this matter since July this year.
Kolkata Police had taken to its Facebook page recently to warn citizens regarding the new scams. “WhatsApp Getting Hacked! — if you receive a message of this kind or if any person on your WhatsApp contact list asks you to forward the same, please don’t comply. Fraudsters are using this modus operandi to take control of your WhatsApp account. We have received a few complaints and seek your cooperation,” it stated, sharing a screenshot of the fraud message where a WhatsApp code is apparently asked to be shared.