Hyderabad woman duped of Rs. 1.7 lakh as fraudster posed as her boss

Hyderabad: A 30-year-old female employee from Hyderabad was allegedly coaxed into using the Google Pay app and duped of Rs. 1.7 lakh.

She got a WhatsApp message from an unidentified number starting with 1-435. The fraudster requested the victim to transfer a certain amount initially and then an additional amount after half an hour, claiming that his Google Pay UPI application was not working and that he needed the money for business purposes. The fraudster promised to repay the amount the next morning.

In her police complaint, the victim stated that she believed it was a genuine message and thinking it was from her boss's mobile number, the victim transferred Rs. 1, 70,000/- (Rupees one lakh seventy thousand only) and subsequently lost the money.

The complainant added that it was later discovered that an unidentified person had hacked her boss's WhatsApp account, associated with the number 1-609, and used it to send the fraudulent message. The victim's boss had no record of any conversations on his WhatsApp account during the incident. Subsequently, the victim filed a complaint with the Cyber crime department, and the investigation to trace the culprits and recover the stolen amount is underway.