Punjab Police get first prize for cracking WhatsApp impersonation cases

Chandigarh, Sep 8 (IANS) The state cyber crime cell of Punjab Police has bagged the first prize for cracking the WhatsApp impersonation cases, wherein imposters were using profile pictures and names of VVIPs on their WhatsApp profiles to dupe government officials and common people.

The award was presented at the National Conference of State Cyber Nodal Officers organized by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) in New Delhi recently.

Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav, terming it a proud moment for Punjab Police, congratulated ADGP Cyber Crime Praveen Kumar Sinha and the team of cyber crime cell for the achievement and conveyed best wishes to them.

Sinha said more than 100 case studies related to cyber crime Investigation were received by the NCRB, out of which 10 case studies belonging to various law enforcement agencies were selected for presentation at the national conference. "The case study of Punjab was awarded first prize," he said.

Director NCRB Vivek Gogia conferred the award to DSP (Cyber Crime) Deepak Singh, who received it on the behalf of Punjab Police.

Inspector Gaganpreet Singh and Inspector Zoravar Singh were also accompanying the DSP.

Pertinently, the state cyber crime cell in July 2022 busted an international cyber fraud racket with the arrest of three Nigerians, who were using profile pictures and names of VVIPs on their WhatsApp profiles to dupe officials and the common people.

A large number of ATM cards, mobile phones, and other items have been recovered from the accused.

The modus operandi used by imposters was sending personal WhatsApp messages to people, mostly officials, asking for financial favours in the form of Amazon gift cards, Paytm, or any other digital payment method.

With these arrests, Punjab Police had dug up another trail, leading to deep-rooted cyber fraud nexus spreading from Delhi and involving mainly Nigerian with a sprinkling of Indian associates.

Meanwhile, the investigation in this case was completed under the supervision of IGP (Cyber Crime) R.K. Jaiswal and DIG (Cyber Crime) Nilambari Jagadale.