16 October,2026 11:02 AM IST | Thane | mid-day online correspondent
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A 21-year-old student from Thane in Maharashtra lost over Rs 2.4 lakh after being allegedly duped by scammers posing as student accommodation providers in Germany, police said on Friday.
According to the police, Sanita Sanjay Gaikwad, a resident of the city's Kalwa area, was searching online for a one-month stay in the European country when she came across a Facebook page named "Berlin students accommodation group".
Investigators said she was contacted through the platform, email and WhatsApp by individuals identifying as Vivienne Rochefort, Stuart James (operating via stewartjamesj0@gmail.com), and Laurent Liftat (using numbers +1 (856) 436-1105 and +44 7344 554212).
The 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 2.4 lakh, an official said, citing the complaint.
A probe is underway into the incident, he added.
In a separate case, the Maharashtra Cyber department has successfully thwarted an attempted cyber attack targeting its digital infrastructure and identified a 22-year-old college student in connection with the intrusion attempt, an official said on Thursday.
The attempted cyber intrusion and sabotage activity, which took place on August 15 this year, was detected in real-time by Maharashtra Cyber's Security Operations Centre (SOC) through its advanced security monitoring systems, enabling technical teams to neutralize the threat instantly, the official added.
"The SOC flagged suspicious cyber activity aimed at the agency's 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 said.
Through backward tracing of the digital footprints and analysis of the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses involved, investigators zeroed in on a 22-year-old college student, who was then brought in for questioning, he said.
The student has been served a formal legal notice in connection with the matter, the official added.
Issuing 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 offences.
The state's nodal cyber agency reiterated its commitment to adopting advanced technologies, continuous threat monitoring, and robust security protocols to protect Maharashtra's digital infrastructure.
(With inputs from PTI)
