T Raja Singh
Hyderabad: Cyber fraudsters targeting gullible citizens is common. However, these days they are not leaving even the legislators. The latest target was Goshamahal MLA T Raja Singh, who managed to outsmart the fraudster.
On Monday evening, May 25, Raja Singh got a call from the number 7386719629, from a person who introduced himself as Dileep Kumar, Additional Secretary in the Finance Department of the state government.
The caller informed Singh about the “Pradhan Mantri Viksit Bharat” scheme, through which Rs 3 crore has been allocated for each constituency, to give loans amounting to Rs 10 lakh per head to 30 youngsters, that too on 50 per cent subsidy.
“He asked me how a person like me, who is active in availing such schemes, was not aware of it. Even I believed him for a moment, as he said he was from the Finance Department. But something didn’t feel right when he told me to submit the Aadhaar card details of the beneficiaries by midnight, claiming that the scheme couldn’t be availed before that,” Singh said.
The Goshamahal MLA hung up the call saying he will call back in a while. He called the personal assistant of Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka, who holds the finance portfolio. When Singh enquired with the PA whether there was any additional secretary named Dileep Kumar working in the department, he came to know that there was none.
In a video message on Tuesday, May 26, Raja Singh made an appeal to all MLAs in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to be wary of such fraudsters. He said that not only the commoners, but even MLAs were being targeted by cyber fraudsters, as they would wish to avail government schemes in the interest of their constituents.
“These fraudsters will later ask us to deposit anywhere between Rs 10,000 to 50,000 as the fees. We will ask our karyakartas and others to mobilise the money and pay them. Then the phone will be switched off. This is what happened with the number from which I received the call. It is now switched off,” Singh cautioned.
Revealing the voice of the fraudster from the telephone conversation, the MLA urged Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and Bhatti Vikramarka to capture the fraudster, so that it could be known how many people he may have duped till now.
It needs to be mentioned that last month, Jangaon Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLA Palla Rajeshwar Reddy was duped of Rs 1 lakh in the name of the same Viksit Bharat scheme. Reddy had paid the caller amount in advance to avail the subsidised scheme that never existed.
Reddy had also lodged a complaint with the Cyber Crime Police.
This post was last modified on May 26, 2026 5:16 pm