PUNE: The cyber crime police have recorded a noticeable rise in the number of cases wherein fraudsters target people by creating fake social networking profiles to cheat their friends or blackmail victims for deletion of such content.
In the first two-and-a-half months of this year, the police have received 220 such complaints as against 140 cases recorded over the first three months of 2020.
The modus operandi involves stealing or downloading photographs of victims. Later, creating an identical profile to send requests to the victims’ friends seeking money on the pretext that the victim has landed in a tough situation, said senior inspector Rajkumar Waghchaure of the cyber crime police.
In some cases, the fraudsters used morphed photos of their victims on the fake profile and contacted the victims demanding money for deletion of such profiles, the police said. In other cases, fraudsters have even issued threats and abused friends of the victims just for fun.
The officer added, “The suspects targeted only those profiles that allow anyone using social networking sites to see the photographs and other details of the profile owner.”
“The suspect copies photographs, personal and professional details, which are generally uploaded on the social networking page. The fraudsters then create a fake profile using the same details of the victims. They also send friend requests to the victim’s friends, who accept the request without thinking too much,” he said.