Four held for faking profiles of cops, requesting money

BENGALURU:  The Cyber Crime Police of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) have arrested four persons from Rajasthan, who had allegedly created fake Facebook profiles misusing names and photographs of senior police officers, connected with their friends and asked for money citing emergency reasons.The accused have been identified as Ansar, Balvinder Singh, Saini and Saddam. Police said that Ansar was a retailer who submitted fake Aadhaar numbers and requested SIM activation, while Singh was SIM card distributor who activated SIM cards bypassing verification process. Saini allegedly created fake Aadhaar cards and Saddam received money sent by victims.

Police said that there was a rise in the number of instances where social media profiles of public figures, government officials including police officers, across the country were being duplicated to cheat the public. Several such incidents were also reported in Karnataka, out of which four cases were registered at the Cyber Crime Division in the CID. Over 10 such cases were filed in different police stations across the state and investigation was taken up in this regard.

“A team including DySP KR Nagaraj, inspector Nayaz Ahmed was formed to investigate the cases registered under the supervision of SP Rohini Katoch Sepat and Cyber Crimes SP MD Sharath. Based on the leads received during the investigation, the team visited Bharatpur and other places in Rajasthan, and arrested the four persons,” the police said.Another accused Shakeel, who created fake Facebook profiles, was still absconding and efforts were on to secure him, the police added.

“During the course investigation, it is learnt that the accused collected photographs and information of public figures, government officials including police officers through their social media accounts, and created fake profiles. Using the fake profile, they sent friend requests to those who were already there on the officers’ friend list. Once they accepted the request, the accused induced them to transfer money to various e-wallets and bank accounts, citing some urgent need and cheated them,” the police said.