BMC Commissioner Ashwini Bhide, who lost control of her WhatsApp account over the weekend to fraudsters who then asked for money from those on her contact list, was the latest in line of public figures who have been duped by the “courier scam”.

In the past, Shiv Sena leader Shaina NC, Marathi actress Vanita Kharat, NCP leader Supriya Sule and BJP leader Sambit Patra have been victims of this particular modus operandi, which, as per police, originates from the Jharkhand-Bihar border.

A senior official from Mumbai Police said, “In the case of the BMC Commissioner, she received a call from a person who claimed that he had come to deliver a parcel on Saturday.

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When she started enquiring about the parcel as she had not placed any order, the person asked her to call up the number he was messaging her to get more details.” The officer added that the message contained **21* followed by a mobile number followed by #

“The **21*  followed by a mobile number and # in the end is actually an instruction for activating call forwarding from her number to the mobile number mentioned in the message,” the officer said. As a result, her calls were forwarded to the fraudster’s number.

“The accused then logged into Bhide’s WhatsApp number from another phone and activated it by opting for a voice call instead of getting an OTP. The call for activating WhatsApp was now received by the fraudsters as they had diverted Bhide’s call to their own number,” the officer said.

Once her WhatsApp was activated, the accused then perused through her WhatsApp messaging list and started sending messages to everyone demanding money. “She was, however, soon alerted about the scam following which she deactivated the feature and her WhatsApp account was restored,” the officer said. So far, no FIR has been registered in the matter.

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The officer said that this was the same modus operandi that had been used by fraudsters to get access to WhatsApp numbers of well-known figures.

“Also, if a well-known person asks others for money, people usually do not ask too many questions and do as they are told. The accused usually use this during weekends to target people,” the officer said.

If your WhatsApp account is hacked dial ##002# to stop call forwarding and dial ##21# for blocking OTP theft