Thane student loses Rs 2.4 lakh in alleged online rental fraud while seeking accommodation in Germany

A 21yearold student from Thane in Maharashtra lost over Rs 24 lakh after being allegedly duped by scammers posing as student accommodation providers in Germany police said on FridayAccording to the police Sanita Sanjay Gaikwad a resident of the citys Kalwa area was searching online for a onemonth stay in the European country when she came across a Facebook page named Berlin students accommodation groupInvestigators said she was contacted through the platform email and WhatsApp by individuals identifying as Vivienne Rochefort Stuart James operating via stewartjamesj0gmailcom and Laurent Liftat using numbers 1 856 4361105 and 44 7344 554212The trio allegedly induced the student to transfer funds under the pretext of booking the overseas accommodation However they became unreachable after she transferred a total of Rs 24 lakh an official said citing the complaintA probe is underway into the incident he addedMaharashtra Cyber thwarts attack on its digital infraIn a separate case the Maharashtra Cyber department has successfully thwarted an attempted cyber attack targeting its digital infrastructure and identified a 22yearold college student in connection with the intrusion attempt an official said on ThursdayThe attempted cyber intrusion and sabotage activity which took place on August 15 this year was detected in realtime by Maharashtra Cybers Security Operations Centre SOC through its advanced security monitoring systems enabling technical teams to neutralize the threat instantly the official addedThe SOC flagged suspicious cyber activity aimed at the agencys digital setup Following the alert the technical team immediately examined the threat vector and deployed proactive containment measures to prevent the intrusion from progressing further A detailed technical investigation was subsequently launched to trace the origin of the attack he saidThrough backward tracing of the digital footprints and analysis of the Internet Protocol IP addresses involved investigators zeroed in on a 22yearold college student who was then brought in for questioning he saidThe student has been served a formal legal notice in connection with the matter the official addedIssuing a warning to tech enthusiasts and students Maharashtra Cyber cautioned that unauthorised probing testing hacking or attempting to compromise government websites and digital infrastructure constitute serious offencesThe states nodal cyber agency reiterated its commitment to adopting advanced technologies continuous threat monitoring and robust security protocols to protect Maharashtras digital infrastructureWith inputs from PTI