Hyderabad: A software engineer from the city lost 3.5 lakh to fraudsters who impersonated his company’s chief executive officer (CEO) on WhatsApp. The victim realised the fraud when he directly contacted his boss, and the latter denied he sent any messages or seeking gift vouchers.On Oct 19, the 37-year-old victim, employed at a private IT firm in Madhapur, received a message from an international number beginning with the ISD code ‘+1’. The display picture and name on WhatsApp matched those of his CEO. Claiming an urgent client requirement, the fraudster asked the victim to purchase Apple gift vouchers and share the codes immediately, promising immediate reimbursement.Trusting the request, the engineer bought multiple vouchers worth 3.5 lakh over the next three days, paying through UPI, credit cards, and forwarded the voucher codes to the impostor. When the promised repayment failed to arrive and the imposter became incommunicado, the victim contacted his CEO on Oct 22 after returning from festival leave. “My CEO denied sending any such messages, seeking gift vouchers and I realised about the scam,” the victim told police.The victim has furnished screenshots of the chat, payment receipts, and transaction IDs to police, and, based on his complaint, Hyderabad Cyber Crime Police registered a case under Sections 318(4) (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 319(2) (Cheating by personation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 66-D of the Information Technology Act on Friday. Police have urged citizens to verify unusual monetary requests, even from known contacts, and to report cyber-fraud immediately through the national helpline 1930.
