Scammers are using social engineering to trick people they know on WhatsApp.

Kathmandu. A few days ago, the salon owner who frequents actress Keki Adhikari received a message on Viber from an unknown number. The profile photo was of Keki Adhikari. However, the name was only ‘Kei’.‘Hello Meena (name change)’ The salon owner received a message from Viber with Keki’s photo. At first, she ignored the account. Immediately, a call came. Nothing was understood in the call. Then a message came from Keki’s name, “Are you bg?”

Meena tried to call but it didn’t work. And, she sent a message saying there was no network. After getting only an ‘Ey’ reply from there, Meena sent a message saying ‘Call me, Keki ji’. However, instead of calling, a message came from there in a mixed language of Roman and English, “I am sending you a 30k mah Aile out of country xhu so Mero grandmother birmi hununxa tyea Dena Sakxhu raw, Possible?” At first glance, not all the words are clear. However, the meaning is clear. The message states that ‘Keki is out of the country and her grandmother is sick in Nepal, so she needs 30 thousand rupees.’

Meena expressed her concern by saying, ‘What happened, Keki ji? Call me once.’
Meena was not convinced. From the words she wrote, Keki would not write like this. And, Meena understood that she was not the type of person to message like this. Then Meena tried to call. However, even when the phone picked up, there was no sound.

Since there was no contact on Viber, Meena said that she would call on Facebook. However, immediately a message came from there saying, ‘Why did you have to call, send me the QR, I really need it.’

Meena, on the other hand, was not convinced. Then another message came from Keki’s name, “I never expected such behavior from you.”

Meena said that she would call on WhatsApp. However, the reply from there was ‘No WhatsApp’. Seeing suspicious behavior, Meena sent a message asking who you were. The reply from there was, ‘Mah kei adhikari ho. Esewa mAH hal dau na.”

No matter how awkward the situation was, it was not credible that Keki would misspell her own name. Then Meena became convinced that someone else was operating this account with the intention of defrauding her. Various photos of Keki were also sent to convince her.

After Meena provided everything to Keki’s official number, it became clear that it was operated with the intention of defrauding. Similarly, another friend of Keki was also sent a similar message from the same number.

“The number was not mine, my photo and name were misused,” Keki said while talking to Tekpana, “It doesn’t seem like she asked even a very close friend. Messages were sent to friends with whom she occasionally meets and chats.”

According to Keki, she had posted a photo of herself at a salon a few days ago and tagged its manager. She suspects that the message may have been sent based on the person who was identified based on the tagged post. She says, “It seems that the message was also sent to the makeup artist. Perhaps, because of the style of speech, charm and other factors that can be identified when asking for money from someone close to her, she would not talk much but would give it when asked for money.”

She says that some people are also sending messages to people they have never met or spoken to.

Following this trend, it seems that fraud attempts are being made in the names of actress Swastima Khadka, actor Akash Shrestha, singer Trishna Gurung and others.

Font developer and graphics designer Anand Maharjan also received a call on Friday morning. A person close to Kathmandu Metropolitan City Deputy Mayor Sunita Dangol received a message from Sunita’s name at 10 pm on Thursday. Maharjan realized that it was a fake WhatsApp account.