IIT Bombay student’s ID misused in scam targeting JEE aspirants, LinkedIn post goes viral

Gill revealed that someone impersonated him using a photo of his IIT Bombay ID card that had earlier circulated online, and used it to scam and harass female JEE aspirants
IIT Bombay student’s ID misused in scam targeting JEE aspirants, LinkedIn post goes viral
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An incident involving identity misuse and online harassment has come to light after Abhishek Gill, a student at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, shared his experience in a viral LinkedIn post. 

Gill revealed that someone impersonated him using a photo of his IIT Bombay ID card that had earlier circulated online, and used it to scam and harass female JEE aspirants.

“You won’t believe how someone misused my IIT Bombay ID card…” Gill wrote on LinkedIn, in a post that has gone viral since.

According to Gill, the impersonator claimed to be “Abhishek Kumar from IIT Bombay CSE” and used a copy of Gill’s student ID as "proof" while contacting underage girls online. The person then made false promises of leaked JEE question papers, allegedly sourced from a professor, in exchange for explicit images.

“He promised leaked JEE papers (from a prof.) in exchange for nude photos. Absolutely disgusting,” Gill wrote.

The issue came to light when one of the targeted girls, suspecting something was wrong, managed to locate Abhishek’s real LinkedIn profile and contacted him directly to inform him of the impersonation and harassment. She had reportedly blocked the scammer, but he continued to contact her using multiple accounts.

“One brave girl reached out to me after spotting my real profile and told me everything. She blocked him, but he kept messaging her from different accounts,” he said.

Abhishek had originally posted a photo of his IIT Bombay ID card eight months ago, as a moment of pride and motivation for others, particularly young aspirants.

However, after learning how the image was being exploited, he immediately took it down.

“I never thought something meant to inspire could be misused like this,” he reflected, and added, “To protect others and stop this, I deleted that post.”

In his post, Abhishek urged everyone, especially students and young professionals, to be cautious about what they share online, including institutional IDs and other personal documents.

“Please — if you ever post anything online, especially your ID, be cautious. The internet doesn’t forget, but the wrong people always find ways to misuse,” he warned.

He also called on people to report such incidents if they come across similar online exploitation.

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