The Supreme Court of India approached Delhi Police after a social media scammer impersonated the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and sought money for a cab fare, Hindustan Times reported. Delhi Police registered the cyber-crime complaint on Tuesday.
Bringing attention to a screenshot message that went viral on social media on Sunday, CJI Chandrachud raised the issue. The Supreme Court’s security department responded by filing a complaint with the cyber-crime department of the Delhi Police, on the instructions of the CJI.
Find out what the scammer’s message stated
Using Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud’s name and image on its social media handle, the fraudster sought ₹500 from an X (formerly Twitter) user. Impersonating as CJI, the scammer said that he needed to get a cab to attend a Collegium meeting and requested money from a user identified as Kailash Meghwal.
The fraudster put forth the request with the promise to return the money once he reached the Supreme Court. The screenshot of the post suggests that the impersonator was “stranded” at Delhi’s Connaught Place (CP).
The message stated, “Hello, I am CJI and we have urgent meeting of the collegium and I am stuck at Connaught Place can you send me 500rs for cab?” according to the report in Hindustan Times. Furthermore, to add a touch of authenticity to the message, the scammer followed the above message with another text that stated “Sent from iPad.”
This comes months after a similar impersonation incident in which a 42-year-old man was arrested in March this year. He was apprehended for duping two people of ₹4 lakh allegedly by impersonating a Delhi Police crime branch inspector. The scammer executed the scheme under the guise of selling luxury cars and expensive cell phones, which were supposedly auctioned by Delhi courts at big bargain prices. Subsequently, he was arrested in the cheating case registered at the Subzi Mandi police station in January.