By Hera Rizwan
Sunil Dutt Dubey, Deputy Superintendent of Police from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh has been spending a lot of time answering calls from people who tell him that they have been scammed. Ironically, the people who have been duped find Dubey after searching for the scamster's photo.
Dubey's photo has been misused by several scammers who pretend to be a cop on their WhatsApp profile.
"Half of my days are spent responding to calls from people who were either scammed or narrowly escaped a scam. Some fraudsters execute FedEx scams, while others demand bribes in fabricated cases to intimidate victims. They use various international numbers but always the same profile image," Dubey told Decode in an interview.
In one of the latest cases where Dubey's photo was misused, an X user named Sandeep Manudhane recounted an experience with an impersonation scam. The individual on the other end of the call claimed that Manudhane's daughter who is studying abroad had been "arrested by the Indian embassy for possessing heroin, along with 4 of her friends".
When requested to let him speak to his daughter, Manudhane heard a 5-second audio loop of a girl crying. Sensing something amiss, he asked his daughter for the family password and also urged the caller to share a photo of the girl. The scammer quickly turned hostile, hurling abuse at Manudhane before disconnecting the call.
Manudhane posted a screenshot, showing that the scammer used an international number. The WhatsApp profile picture depicted a person in a police uniform. This photo was identified by another X user as belonging to DSP Sunil Dutt Dubey, who had posted it on his Instagram on January 26, 2023.
DSP Sunil Dutt Dubey image misused by scammers
Decode reached out to DSP Dubey to know if he was aware of the scam being pulled off misusing his photo. Dubey, in fact, told Decode that this was not the first time his image had been exploited in a scam. Besides the unsuccessful attempt mentioned earlier, several scammers have successfully defrauded people of significant amounts using the same photo as their display picture.
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Victim of impersonation scams
One of the most common scams happening since last year is the FedEx courier calls. Scammers contact individuals, claiming a FedEx package with contraband items like tiger skins, cocaine, or high-value jewellery is addressed to them. A fake police officer then requests a Skype call for further investigation.
Emphasising confidentiality, the fraudsters send forged documents, including ones from the CBI, RBI, an arrest warrant, and other deceptive materials. They allege the individual's Aadhaar number is used for money laundering and gather bank account and Aadhaar details, urging them to transfer money to specified accounts with the false promise of reimbursement after RBI verification.
When questioned about whether Dubey has taken any action to address these impersonation cases, the officer stated that it is impossible to even proceed without filing an FIR. "Whenever the victims of the scam call me for help, I tell them to file an FIR, so that I can help them and myself. However, many either avoid filing one altogether or delay it to the point where it becomes redundant," he said.
According to the DSP, even after the timely filing of FIR, one cannot guarantee redressal in victim's favour. "These scammers operate from obscure locations and possess innumerable fake SIM cards. They can easily dispose off the SIM card making themselves untraceable," he said.
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Fighting scams with awareness
Since Dubey couldn't do much to curb the impersonation scams in his name, he resorted to making cyber awareness videos and sharing them on social media, in order to educate people of newer cybercrimes.
He told Decode, "I realised that people often lack basic awareness about these scams and consequently lose their lifetime savings in an instant. You don't need to be highly skilled in technology to avoid such scams. What you need is a presence of mind and the ability to stay calm."
Explaining how people can avoid becoming victims of cybercrime, provided they did not panic, Dubey cited an example, "If a scammer posing as a police officer asks for bribe and shares their bank account number in this regard, any person with a basic reasoning would smell suspicion as bribes will never be taken while leaving behind a money trail."
Dubey has been making short videos, cautioning people of different types of cybercrime. His YouTube channel has garnered over 7k subscribers on YouTube.
The subject of the video range from spoofing call, where someone disguises themselves as a trusted contact or brand in order to gain a victim's trust, to crypto scams, where scammers impersonate new or established businesses offering fraudulent crypto coins or tokens.
However, even these videos are being altered with a fake voice-over to deceive people.
Dubey shared some of these manipulated videos with Decode. In the original video, the police officer is discussing sextortion scams, but the manipulated version overlays a fake voice-over of an ad by the "Mumbai Airport police," advising people to contact a WhatsApp number to access the airport lounge.
Similarly, in another fake video, the voice-over targets people looking to sell old gold at a good price, while the original video had Dubey warning about impersonation scams.
Dubey said, "It's obvious that the video is fake because the voice-over is not in sync with my speech. These aren't even deepfakes, yet people are still being deceived by them."
It's disheartening that my educational videos have garnered so few views, while these fake videos on WhatsApp have reached a much larger audience, he added.
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