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Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma posted WhatsApp messages in which the fraudster introduced himself as “Vijay Shekhar Sharma” and asked him to save his “new phone number”
In this case, no harm was caused as Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma took it in his stride and used the situation for comic relief. (Image: PTI/File)
Titled “Impersonating myself to me”, Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma on Wednesday shared what appeared to be a humorous exchange between him and a scamster, who was allegedly trying to pose as him to extract sensitive information about the company’s funds.
In a lengthy note on his X, Sharma posted a chain of WhatsApp messages in which the fraudster introduced himself as “Vijay Shekhar Sharma” and asked him to save his “new phone number”. The encounter left internet users in splits, but spotlighted that not even those like him are spared when it comes to scamsters using sophisticated manoeuvres, advanced techniques, fake profiles, malicious links and impersonation.
In this case, however, no harm was caused as Sharma took it in his stride and used the situation for comic relief. In one of the messages, the alleged fraudster urged him to check and report back on the company’s available funds.
The impersonator also demanded that he share the number and contact details of the finance head of the company, and went so far as to ask him to forward a suspicious .exe file—disguised as a GST document—to the finance executive.
Notably, the Telecom Department on Wednesday introduced the ‘Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI)’ that enables enhanced intelligence sharing with banks, UPI service providers and financial institutions, a step it believes would mark a major step towards tackling cyber fraud and financial crime.
According to DoT, this will enhance cyber protection and validation checks in case of mobile numbers flagged with this tool, when digital payment is proposed to be made to such numbers.
FRI allows for swift, targeted, and collaborative action against suspected frauds in both telecom and financial domains, an official release said.
“…Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has announced sharing of ‘Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI)’ with stakeholders — an output from a multi-dimensional analytical tool developed as part of the Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP) to empower financial institutions with advance actionable intelligence for cyber fraud prevention,” the release added..
It is pertinent to mention that Airtel, earlier this month, launched a fraud detection solution that will identify and block malicious websites across all communication Over-The-Top (OTT) apps and platforms including WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook, Instagram, email, and others in real-time.
The service is currently available in Haryana circle, with a nationwide roll-out planned soon.
(With PTI inputs)
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