Uttar Pradesh: Your IAS/IPS friend seeking money on Facebook could be fake

LUCKNOW: It was 1am when Mayank Yadav received a message from his friend, a senior IPS officer, on Facebook, seeking Rs 5,000 into his account as he had "lost his wallet" and his online payment facility was blocked and debit card run out of cash.
Without thinking twice, Mayank transferred the money. Hours later, the officer made a post stating that somebody has made a fake ID in his name and posts asking for money should be ignored. "This is my only Facebook ID. I will also act against the person who created this ID," he added.
Similarly, Sulekha Pandey was defrauded of Rs 10,000 after she transferred money to an SP-rank officer posted in east UP. State cyber cell has received as many as 20 such cases in a span of one month.
SP, cyber cell, Triveni Singh said that scammers were making carbon copies of legitimate profiles of gazetted officers to trick users into revealing financial and personal details through 'cloning'.
"They are creating a new account using the same name, personal information and profile and cover photos similar to those of gazetted officers even going as far as copying their status. Fraudsters are demanding money by pretending to be in a problem," Singh said.
Singh also cited how a fraudster had recently created a fake Facebook profile of an additional secretary posted in another state and tried to extract money from the people on his friend list.
"We have also initiated action and reported 10 fake profiles," he said.
The officer said many relatives, policemen, journalists, and other people on his friends' list received a friend request from fake accounts. The account had same profile picture from original account.
"The cyber fraudsters don't directly message. They watch the profiles of those who make most comments on the profile photo of the officer and then also receive replies from the officer," Singh said.
Online fraudsters made a fake Facebook account of deputy superintendent of police in GRP (Lucknow) Sanjeev Sinha and demanded money from his friends and relatives, including a few settled abroad.
The police officer came to know about the development when several people called him on his phone informing him about the fraud.
Verify post before transferring money
One must cross-check if the person’s account is verified or if the account is frequently used by him/her, police said. If someone is demanding money, one should call the person concerned and if the person is really in trouble, they added. According to cops, people should verify the account before accepting a friend request.