Youth arrested for impersonating IAS officer Tina Dabi on WhatsApp, seeking Amazon gift cards
India Today
A youth from Rajasthan's Dungarpur was arrested for trying to dupe people by posing as Jaisalmer collector Tina Dabi.
A youth from Dungarpur has been detained for allegedly trying to dupe people over WhatsApp using photos of Jaisalmer collector Tina Dabi. The matter came to the fore when Urban Improvement Trust secretary (Rajasthan Administrative Service) Sunita Choudhary received a message seeking an Amazon gift card in Tina Dabi’s name.
The youth first registered a phone number on WhatsApp and put up a display picture (DP) of IAS officer Tina Dabi. Pretending to be Dabi, he would then message unsuspecting people and ask for Amazon gift cards of various amounts. His modus operandi would seem genuine as his texts were in flawless English.
UIT Secretary (RAS) Sunita Choudhary said she received a message from the fraudster’s number in impeccable English on Monday evening, which led her to believe that it was actually Tina Dabi who had texted her. “I thought she had some work. However, the fraudster sought Amazon gift cards from me in the messages. But I don’t use Amazon,” Choudhary said.
Still, to confirm, I called up Tina Dabi, who was shocked to hear about the incident. After learning of the cheating attempt in her name, Jaisalmer collector Tina Dabi immediately informed the SP about the matter.
The SP of Jaisalmer traced the number with the help of a cyber team and found its location in Dungarpur district. He then informed the Dungarpur SP about the matter and the youth using the number was caught. The arrested youth is now being questioned.
