Bhubaneswar: After the deadly Blue Whale and Momo Challenge games, which claimed several lives across the country, a similar killer spam dubbed as Olivia Hoax on WhatsApp has given rise to panic among parents and the authorities here as well.
Assessing the gravity of the situation, the Crime Branch of Odisha Police Thursday issued an advisory on its Twitter handle warning children not to read any message received from unknown or suspicious numbers. The new spam, Olivia Hoax has been doing rounds on WhatsApp. The sender, posing as ‘Olivia’, contacts young children via the messenger app. On getting a response, it sends links to explicit content after some initial conversation with the child victim.
The police have advised parents to keep a keen watch on their children’s online activity. They have also shared screenshots of sample conversations with ‘Olivia’ on the Twitter handle. The Crime Branch has publicised the advisory with the hash tag #SayNotoCyberStrangers on its Twitter handle.
It has become very easy for miscreants to brainwash vulnerable kids. Through WhatsApp, one of the most downloaded messaging platforms, criminals have found a novel way to reach out to kids and teenagers and manipulate them into doing things against their will.
Recently, two youths from the state lost their lives while ‘playing’ the Momo Challenge. In the first case, S Chetan Kumar, a third-year computer science student, allegedly killed himself in Chennai by jumping from off the sixth floor of a hospital, August 22.
In the second case, Umakanta Behera, 24, who was working as a labourer in Chennai, was found hanging in an under-construction community youth club at Umaragaon village September 5 when he was on a visit to Cuttack.
Recently, a school teacher in Kandhamal district received calls from an unknown number. The profile of the number had the infamous icon of the ‘Momo Challenge’. He was advised by Daringbadi police to keep his phone switched off.