Rajkot: Cybercriminals in Morbi carried out a scam by posing as school administrators, tricking parents into sharing one-time passwords (OTPs), hijacking their social media accounts and using them to cheat their contacts. The accused later allegedly escalated the crime by demanding Rs 10 lakh from a businessman and threatening to kill him if the money was not paid.The Morbi City cybercrime police registered an FIR based on a complaint filed by Bhavesh Patel, 34, who runs a tiles manufacturing unit in Morbi. The case was registered under BNS, along with relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act, against users of two mobile numbers.According to the complaint, an unidentified caller contacted Patel’s wife in June, claiming to be a school administrator. The caller convinced her to share an OTP, following which her WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram accounts were allegedly hacked.Police said the fraudsters then used her WhatsApp account to send messages to her relatives, claiming money was urgently required either to pay for a parcel or for the treatment of a hospitalised patient. Believing the requests to be genuine, two relatives allegedly transferred a total of Rs 30,000 to the fraudsters.The case took a more serious turn when the accused allegedly called Patel’s business partner and demanded Rs 10 lakh. According to the FIR, the callers threatened to come to his residence and shoot him if the amount was not paid.During the preliminary investigation, cybercrime officials found that the suspects were allegedly targeting WhatsApp groups of parents associated with schools and tuition classes across Morbi. By impersonating school management or principals, they allegedly obtained OTPs, hacked accounts and later used them to solicit money from contacts under various pretexts, including school fee payments.Investigators also found indications that WhatsApp groups linked to people in the beauty parlour sector were similarly targeted using the same modus operandi.Police began tracing the mobile numbers used in the offence and analysing digital transaction records to identify the accused. Officials urged the public not to share OTPs or confidential information with unknown callers and advised users to enable two-factor authentication on their social media accounts to prevent unauthorised access.
