THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state cyber police in the district have held a 17-year-old boy, who is suspected to be part of a gang that duped people by creating social media accounts of top police officers across the country and sought money from those in the friends list.
The boy, hailing from Rajasthan, was caught by the cyber police here for trying to dupe money from people using a Facebook profile created using the images and identity of an IPS officer of the state. It turned out that the boy had attempted this cyber fraud using the mobile phone his parents bought him for attending online classes. The cyber sleuths traced his location and summoned him here along with his guardians. After producing before a court here he was granted bail.
According to police, the teenager added several people as friends to the new Facebook account using the identity of the IPS officer and asked some of them to donate money for charity. One of the friends grew suspicious and contacted the officer, bringing the fraud to light. Police immediately contacted Facebook authorities in the country and blocked them. They then traced the identity of the accused using the IP address he used. Thiruvananthapuram cyber police deputy superintendent T Syamlal said that they have found fake social media accounts of more cops in the state, including many IPS officers. Efforts are on to trace the individuals handling those accounts.
In another case, the cyber police here have also arrested two men from Rajasthan for extorting over Rs 10,000 from a city resident through social media. The police identified the accused as Sukhdev Singh and Naher Singh hailing from Kaman town in Rajasthan. They duped the complainant by using a fake account created using stolen pictures of a girl. They lured him to send personal pictures and later threatened to publish those images unless he paid them money.
The two accused were produced before the court and remanded in judicial custody.