How a Rajasthan man posed as Tina Dabi IAS and tried to dupe people

A young man from Rajasthan has been arrested for allegedly posing as IAS officer Tina Dabi and trying to dupe people of money and gift cards.

The accused used a photo of the Jaisalmer district collector as his display picture on WhatsApp and used it to ask unsuspecting people for money and Amazon gift cards, Mirror Now quoted police as saying.

The messages were written in perfect English and he got away with his tricks for a while, until one of the messages reached UIT Secretary (RAS) Sunita Choudhary on Monday night.


Choudhary initially thought it was Dabi working late into the night, but then got suspicious when he asked for the Amazon gift card.

"I assumed she was working. But in the communications, the scammer asked for Amazon gift cards from me. I got suspicious because I don't use Amazon," the report quoted her as saying.

Choudhary then called her to crosscheck, and a horrified Dabi contacted the Jaisalmer district SP of someone's attempt to impersonate her.

The cyber squad traced the number to Dungarpur district in Rajasthan, and the young man was nabbed by the police.

Tina Dabi took charge as Jaisalmer district collector early last month. She also became the administrator of Jaisalmer Central Cooperative Bank and chairperson of Urban Improvement Trust.