Former Karnataka CM Sadananda Gowda loses Rs 3 lakh to cybercriminals

However, it is still unclear how Gowda’s mobile phone was compromised, said the officials at the Cybercrime Economic Offence and Narcotics (CEN) police station, Bengaluru North, that registered a case. The police are checking if he had clicked on any links.

The incident has come to light only two days after the mobile phones of actor-director Upendra and his actress wife Priyanka Upendra were hacked. Their data was compromised by fraudsters who later siphoned off about Rs 2 lakh from their friends.

Priyanka said she received a call at around 10 am from someone claiming to represent a Dubai-based online platform where she had placed an order. The caller, posing as an executive, claimed they couldn’t locate her address for package delivery.

Following the instructions of the caller, she typed in the code, and soon found that something had gone wrong with her mobile phone. She then forwarded the link to Upendra’s phone and then clicked on it, after which his phone stopped working as well.

The cyber fraudsters then sent fraudulent WhatsApp messages from Priyanka’s account to her contacts, requesting urgent financial assistance. Some of them transferred the money to the account.

This year, Karnataka has recorded more than 7500 cybercrime cases, with Bengaluru city accounting for more than 5500 cases.