Several persons in the city including junior police officials recently received a fraudulent message seeking digital gift cards ”urgently” in the name of the Mumbai police commissioner, an official said on Friday.
The unidentified person or persons sending WhatsApp messages used police commissioner Vivek Phansalkar’s photo as the display picture (DP), he said.
The message asked the recipients to send 20 digital gift cards from e-commerce firm Amazon worth Rs 10,000 in total, the official said.
The city police have warned its officials not to fall for the fraud, he added.
”There is something I need you to please do for me urgently as I am currently attending a very crucial meeting with limited phone calls… There are some listed prospects I am presenting them to today. I can’t get it done myself due to meetings and I don’t have any of my cards with me. How quickly can you arrange these gift cards I need to send them out in less than an hour. I would provide you with the type of gift cards and the amount of each. I will reimburse you before the end of the day,” the message read.
