India: Scammer poses as Income Tax officer, cheats people with stolen identity

A fraudster allegedly posed as a senior woman Income Tax officer from Mumbai and by using her picture tried to cheat her colleagues by sending them requests on phone to buy gift cards of an online shopping platform, police said on Sunday. The woman, currently posted as the Income Tax (IT) department’s principal chief commissioner in Mumbai, recently lodged a police complaint, based on which an FIR was registered against the unidentified accused, an official from the Azad Maidan police station here said.

The woman, who is an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, in her complaint said she received calls from her colleagues in Chennai to tell her that they had received messages from some phone numbers, with the sender posing as her and requesting them to purchase gift cards of an online shopping company, the police said.

The woman was earlier posted in Chennai and shifted to the IT office in April this year.

The fraudster allegedly displayed the woman officer’s picture on the WhatsApp accounts of numbers from which the messages were sent to her colleagues so as to make the gift card requests seem genuine, the police official said.

“On the basis of primary information, we have registered a case under relevant Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections, including 420 (cheating), and provisions of the Information Technology Act. Further investigation is underway,” Azad Maidan police station’s senior inspector Bhushan Belnekar said.

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