Panaji: Hoping to scam journalists, this cyber criminal came up with a new trick: he impersonated as Goa Governor PS Sreedharan Pillai and sent WhatsApp messages to several journalists, seeking urgent payment via Google or Amazon Pay.
Fortunately, the journalists suspected it could be a scam and alerted Goa Police. The Crime Branch has started a probe.
“The unknown person appears to have impersonated as the honourable Governor on WhatsApp. Several messages have been sent to journalists since Friday evening seeking money. We are carrying out technical analysis based on the messages we have received to track down the accused,” a Crime Branch official was quoted as saying by IANS.
It all started on Friday evening. Several journalists got messages with the Governor’s display picture.
“Initially when I saw the DP, I thought it was the Governor himself because we have been in touch with Raj Bhavan over the past few days for official purposes,” Joel Afonso, Editor of The Goan, a local English daily, told IANS.
“Later when the person spoke about sending him money via Amazon Pay, I became suspicious. I communicated the potential fraud to officials at Raj Bhavan,” Afonso said.
Gerard D’Souza, who writes for The Hindustan Times from Goa, also got the message. “I was taken aback to receive a message from a WhatsApp profile with the Governor’s picture inquiring about me…At first I thought it was a genuine message,” he told IANS.
“Then I was sceptical,” he said.
In July last year, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s Facebook account was cloned and requests for money via UPI were sent to several persons across Goa.
