Karnataka ex-professor cheated of Rs 1.19 crore over his own Facebook post on 30-year-old Canada accident

In October last year, he received a message stating that Dobera wanted to transfer the couple’s savings, Rs 45.69 crore, to Korishetter so that he could open a charity trust to help the poor in India.

Korishetter initiated a conversation, and cybercriminals who posed as officials made him transfer Rs 1.19 crore in the name of a registration fee, security deposit, income tax and other expenses, according to his police complaint.

On February 5, he informed his family members and later approached police and narrated the entire episode. The Hubballi Dharwad cybercrime police who registered a case under Information Technology Act sections 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation using computer resource) and the Indian Penal Code sections 419 (cheating by personation) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property).

A police officer said, “During the probe, we found out that whatever information the miscreants used to target Korishetter was in the public domain. He had narrated the incident of professor Clerk on Facebook and the same was used to approach him over Gmail. Later, some of them contacted him over mobile phone as well. They spoke in English and Hindi but it was too late when Korishetter realised he was conned. We are investigating further.”