In short
A social or online profile is taken over or personal identity data is stolen for fraud The objective is typically to take over accounts, impersonate the victim or enable financial fraud.
What it is
The compromised identity may then be used to impersonate the victim or access linked services. The victim is then pushed to reveal credentials/OTP or interact with a phishing/account-recovery flow.
How it starts
A social or online profile is taken over or personal identity data is stolen for fraud.
What they tell you
The compromised identity may then be used to impersonate the victim or access linked services
What they want you to do
Reveal credentials/OTP or interact with a phishing/account-recovery flow
How you lose money
take over accounts, impersonate the victim or enable financial fraud
What happens next
After the first successful step, the fraudster may demand more money/information, deepen account or device access, or disappear.
Warning signs
trust | urgency | authority | credential theft | account takeover | identity theft
Where this is documented
India — officially documented by an Indian authority/regulator
How to avoid it
Use MFA, unique passwords and official recovery paths; never share OTPs or pair/login devices for someone else; review active sessions regularly.
If it already happened
Contact the bank/payment provider immediately if money moved; report financial cyber fraud promptly via 1930 and cybercrime.gov.in; preserve messages, transaction IDs, phone numbers and URLs. From a clean device, revoke sessions, change credentials and review account recovery/security settings.