Bhubaneswar: This time the Cyber fraudster fed upon a top IT Official of Odisha Government. Believe it or not but this has happened with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Odisha Computer Application Centre (OCAC) Manoj Kumar Patnaik, who is also holding the key position of Additional Secretary of the State Electronics And Information Technology (E&IT) Department. Unidentified hackers have defrauded around Rs. 7 lakh from his friends and acquaintances on his name.
As per reports, the miscreants allegedly hacked Manoj Ku. Pattnaik’s WhatsApp account before sending distress messages to some of his contacts by impersonating the user. As many as five contacts, including Pattnaik’s colleagues, claimed to have transferred money to the bank and UPI accounts shared by the fraudster in the distress message. They have lodged an FIR at the Saheed Nagar Police Station and the the Cyber Cell has taken it as a Suo-moto case.
Pattnaik said he had received a call from an unknown number on his WhatsApp on Tuesday afternoon. As the caller did not say anything, he hung up the phone after around 30 seconds. After some time, Pattnaik received a call from one of his friends who inquired about his health and informed him about the distress message which he had received from Pattnaik’s Whatsapp number seeking urgent financial help for treatment. Then I realized someone has hacked my WhatsApp account. I did not click on any unknown link sent to me by anyone,” informed Pattnaik.
Soon afterwards, Pattnaik started receiving phone calls from his well-wishers and informed that they had transferred money after getting the phishing message.
Sushant Sahoo, a cyber expert in the City said, “It seems impossible that his WhatsApp number be hacked after receiving a phone call. He must have clicked on some malicious link sent or shared some secret code with someone. A mobile phone can be hacked if one charges his/her phone in public places or uses public WiFi. He must have committed one of these things, following which malware must have gone to his phone which led to the hacking,” he added.
Following the incident, the E&IT department has started sanitizing people about cyber frauds. “The department has issued an advisory on WhatsApp phishing. Hackers target victims via WhatsApp voice calls or suspicious links on social media, SMS, WhatsApp. By adopting proper precautionary measures, hackers can be kept at bay without uninstalling the App,” the E&IT department tweeted.
