As Bengaluru accounts for 1212 of the 1685 identity theft cases that were reported in 19 major cities nationwide last year, the city is now dubbed India’s IT (identity theft) capital.
On August 6 of last year, K Muralidhar, the High Court of Karnataka's Public Relations Officer, received some WhatsApp messages urging him to purchase certain gift cards.
The phone number that sent the messages had a picture of the High Court's acting Chief Justice as its "Display Picture." Muralidhar complied and paid Rs 90,000 online for nine gift cards that were each worth Rs 10,000.
However, he didn't receive any of the gift cards, and he quickly discovered that the WhatsApp messages had actually been sent by cybercriminals who had merely tricked him using the image of the acting Chief Justice.
The Sahitya Akademi president Chandrasekhara Kambar's relatives and acquaintances were shocked earlier this year when they got a WhatsApp message from the renowned writer and poet requesting fo...