A fraudster, posing as a courier company executive, tricked a pre-university college principal into calling the number of a ‘courier delivery boy’ and gained access to the principal’s contacts stored in his mobile phone. The fraudster then hacked the principal’s WhatsApp account and duped two of his friends of ₹45,000 each.
In a complaint filed with the Mangaluru Cyber Economic and Narcotic (CEN) police on Saturday, the principal stated that he received a call on the morning of July 19, while he was at the college. The caller, speaking in Hindi, claimed to be an executive of Blue Dart, a courier service. He allegedly told the principal that their company’s delivery boy was near the latter’s house to deliver a parcel from a bank to the latter’s wife. The caller then asked the principal to dial a number sent to him in a text message to help the delivery boy.
The principal pressed a link that had a 10-digit number that was preceded by *21* and ended with #. The call did not go through, but he received an alert, which he ignored. Then the caller called him back and asked the principal to call back by dialling the 10 digits. The principal did the same, but there was no response.
A few minutes later, the principal began receiving calls from his colleagues and friends, who told him that they had received messages in his name through WhatsApp, demanding money. Two of his friends have even responded by transferring ₹45,000 each, he stated in the complaint.
The principal realised that the fraudster, after gaining access to the principal’s contacts, managed to divert calls made to the principal’s number to his. The principal immediately took the help of his relatives and the college IT team to secure his phone number and prevent further misuse.
The CEN police have registered his compliant under the provisions of the Information Technology Act.
Published – July 20, 2025 08:10 pm IST
