Hyderabad: The Cyber Crime wing of the Hyderabad police on Saturday, arrested four criminals for spoofing the cellphone number of Andhra Pradesh chief minister, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's personal assistant, K. Nageswara Reddy (KNR). While in conventional terms, to "spoof" implies to trick, or deceive, in the tech world, spoofing suggests tricking or deceiving computer systems or cellphone users. How is spoofing done? The criminals mask their identity and fake the identity of another user on the Internet or phone network. Using this technique, pranksters tried to impersonate Andhra Pradesh chief minister, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and also dropped the names of BJP MP and leader, Poonam Mahajan and used her Whatsapp DP, during chats through the popular social messaging platform, as well.

The culprits tried to extort money using Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), and also used abusive language against some people. The YSR Congress Party lodged a complaint with the office of the City Police Commissioner in December 2018 and the matter was referred to the cyber crime authorities.

The matter was investigated following which Mummadivaram police in East Godavari district of AP, arrested Pandari Vishnu Murthy, Gangavarapu Arun Kumar, Pilla Ramakrishna and Marthandam Jagdish. The four had formed a gang and indulged in these criminal activities, according to the police.

The Hyderabad cyber crime police brought them to the city on Saturday on a warrant. The accused were produced before a court and remanded to judicial remand.

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