Jamtara in Barak Valley: Miscreant impersonating Hailakandi District Judge asked Amazon gift cards worth lakhs; FIR lodged

Identity theft and catfishing have just reached a new height in the valley. This time, the District and Sessions Judge of Hailakandi was used as bait. Faking the judge’s identity on WhatsApp, a person tried to scam the judge’s contacts and loot them in lakhs. This scammer didn’t use the conventional method of bank transfer, rather chose gift cards and pretended to be sick or in some urgency. An FIR was filed by the judge, Sanjay Hazarika with the Hailakandi Police Station for investigation.

The phone number used to catfish the identity is registered in Bihar and in the name of Sourav Sarkar according to Truecaller. The WhatsApp display picture of this number is that of Judge Sanjay Hazarika. The scammer got hold of the judge’s contact number and sent them messages pretending to be sick and asking for help. The scammer asked the people contacted to send money via gift vouchers.

In one message, the scammer asked for 25 AmazonPay E-gift cards worth rupees ten thousand each, which sums up to two lakh fifty thousand rupees. The scammer also went to the extent of saying “Use either the Congratulations or Thank you theme”, while sending the vouchers. The scammer also sighted, “I can’t get it done myself due to meetings and I don’t have any of my cards with me”. The identity thief also assured to “reimburse the money before the end of the day”.

In the FIR filed by Sanjay Hazarika at Hailakandi Police Station, he mentioned, “Someone with mobile number +91-7903793262 is using my photograph and name in WhatsApp profile and pretending to be me. The said person is also sending various messages to my contacts by pretending to be me”. The judge has requested the Hailakandi police to take immediate action against this catfish.