Ullal: Hackers who have opened a fake Instagram account in the name of Ullal Station House Officer Sandeep are demanding money from many. The station house officer shared the complaint on his Instagram and Facebook homepage. For the past two days, a fake Instagram account has been opened and Sandeep’s friends have been demanding money. A message is being sent to all the friends asking them to pay Rs 7,500 as they are in difficulty. This came to the notice of the station house officer and he sent a message on social media asking people not to give money.
A racket has been going on across Dakshina Kannada district for several months now to ask for money by hacking the Facebook accounts of prominent personalities, including Mangaluru Police Commissioner Shashikumar and journalists, by re-adding friends to his account. Several cases have been registered with the cyber cell in this regard and it is becoming impossible to trace the hackers. According to a source, the hackers are fraudulently transferring money to the bank accounts of farmers based in north India. There, they give small amounts to the farmers and get their bank account numbers, and OTP from them, and transfer the money. By the time the district’s cyber cell police froze their accounts and reached north India, only a poor farmer was confronted by the police. However, no trace of the accused is available.
Cyber police station needs to be centralised: Frauds are taking place internationally through the internet. Frauds continue to take place throughout the country. Since there are cyber police stations under the state police department, the investigation has not picked up pace and there are hurdles at many angles making it impossible to trace the accused. The police are of the view that if a cyber police station is implemented from the Centre itself, it will be possible to start simultaneous investigations across the country into the crime in the district and trace the accused immediately.
