A senior Jammu and Kashmir IAS officer took to Twitter to share an incident where cyber criminals were using his mobile number and picture to defraud

Senior IAS officer Shahid Choudhary on Twitter said that a cyber criminal was using the IAS's number to defraud his colleagues and friends and requested the Jammu and Kashmir police to take strict actions against the culprit. 

The IAS officer took to Twitter to inform about the incident and gave out details like his mobile number and picture that was being used to send messages to the officer's friends and colleagues to seek financial help. 

Shahid Choudhary is a 2009- batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, serving as tribal affairs department secretary and chief executive officer of the Mission Youth Jammu and Kashmir. He has won the prime minister's award for excellence in public administration in 2015. 

In a tweet, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) of Kashmir said, "General public is advised to remain cautious and follow precautionary measures to deal with fraudsters using fake WhatsApp display pictures to impersonate high-profile government officers or dignitaries."

It also shared an advisory on the fake WhatsApp DP scam issued by the Cyber Police Kashmir advising people to not reply to messages received from unknown WhatsApp numbers and not to transfer money or purchase online gift vouchers. The advisory also said that people should not share banking details, install any remote access app and click on any suspicious link.

Cyber criminals have recently used a photo of the Chandigarh Police chief to seek "Amazon gift cards" from his friends.

According to sources, some other senior officials in the Jammu and Kashmir administration have also been targeted by cyber criminals in a bid to extract money by hacking into bank accounts.

(With inputs from PTI)