Cyber Criminals Are Targeting Everyone, Including DGPs: Three Arrested For Duping Top Cop

It’s not just the aam janta that are targeted by cyber criminals, but even the top cops are as much a victim of this menace The latest high-profile victim of the cyber criminals is Shankar Mahadev Bidari, former Director-General of Police (DGP) Karnataka.

According to police, his email was hacked and mails regarding a financial help was sent to his contacts.

In response to this, one of his friends responded by transferring Rs 25,000 to a bank account whose details were mentioned in the email.

In a later conversation the friend asked about his whereabouts and this became the turning point of the case.

The DGP informed that he had not sent any such mail, which clearly meant that there was a scam with the friend of Rs 25,000.

The former DGP filed a police complaint on 27 February. Following his complaint the South East division police has arrested three members of a gang from Nagaland on Wednesday for allegedly hacking Bidari’s email account and defrauding one of his contacts of 25,000 rupees.

The cyber crime police tracked down the three men using the bank account they used after receiving a report from Bidari.

Those arrested have been identified as Thia Rit Samong, 31, Seropa Sesai, 27, and Ester Konyak, 28. They’re part of a five-person gang that specialises in cybercrime and threatens people online, according to a policeman.

The accused was found to have 60 bank accounts, debit cards, 23 PAN cards, Aadhaar cards, four cell phones, and cash totaling Rs. 2 lakh.

Bidari is not the first former Karnataka DGP to find himself caught in alleged phishing attacks — when hackers seek confidential information by projecting themselves as bank officials — and other forms of cyber fraud. The Most popular and recent examples are that of former state police chief Ajai Kumar Singh, who lost Rs 2.13 lakh to alleged fraudsters last July, Ashit Mohan Prasad, who was targeted in 2018 and lost Rs 2 lakh.

In 2015, the target was Karnataka’s then serving top cop Om Prakash, who was making a big move against cybercrime at that time.

These examples are enough to send alerts everywhere. They warn us against being cautious and alert against such mails. Money laundering through mail has become very common. Let us not assume ourselves to be safe and under any protection shield.

Don’t trust emails or text messages so easily. First confirm and assure then take your desired step. Also do not trust anonymous and pretentious mails or phone calls because you never know in which form cyber criminals are knocking at your doorstep.