OCAC CEO’s WhatsApp number hacked; people in contact list duped of Rs 7 lakh

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Computer Application Centre (OCAC) CEO Manoj Kumar Patnaik became victim of cybercrime as fraudsters hacked his WhatsApp number and later demanded huge amount of money from people in his contact list.

According to reports, around five contacts of Manoj Patnaik fell prey to cyber fraudsters and lost around Rs 7 lakh as they transferred money to the account number sent from the official’s WhatsApp number.

The victims lodged complaints at the Saheed Nagar Police Station.

Official source said that OCAC head Manoj Patnaik, who also serves the State as the Additional Secretary of Electronics & Information Technology Department, Odisha Government, had received a phone call from an unknown number on Wednesday night.

As the caller did not speak anything over the phone, Patnaik disconnected the call. A few minutes later, he realised that his WhatsApp number has been hacked as some of his friends told him that they had received message from his WhatsApp number asking them for money.

Some of his office staff have also paid money after receiving message from WhatsApp number of Patnaik.

Source said that Patnaik has not installed WhatsApp on his phone, neither he had clicked on any link yesterday. The official expressed surprise as to how his WhatsApp number was hacked and fraudsters took away huge amount of money from his contacts.