Uttar Pradesh man poses as Bengal CM secretary to dupe FB ‘friends’, held

Kolkata: A 21-year-old man was arrested from Mathura in Uttar Pradesh for allegedly creating a fake Facebook profile to pose as the secretary of Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s grievance cell. The accused then contacted the friends of the IAS officer and tried to dupe them by asking for money from them.
According to the Bidhannagar cyber cell, which carried out the arrest, Mathura resident Bilal made a Facebook account in the name of IAS PB Salim and asked potential victims to transfer money to him through Google Pay.

Salim is the chairman and managing director of the West Bengal Power Development Corporation Limited, OSD & secretary at the Chief Minister's Office, Public Grievances Cell, chairman of West Bengal Minorities and State Development and Finance Corporation.
In his complaint lodged with the cyber cell on September 9 last year, the IAS officer alleged that an unknown miscreant had created a fake Facebook ID using his photograph taken from his original social media account. The complaint stated that the accused sent friend requests all over again and started chatting with the IAS officer's friends and started asking for money from them. The miscreant also provided GPay account details to transfer money.
According to IC (cyber crime) Sisir Kumar Naskar, who was the investigating officer in the case, a mobile phone, which he used to create the fake Facebook account, was seized. “We have brought the accused on transit remand and are further investigating the case to ascertain if others are involved in the crime,” said an officer.
Kolkata Police cyber cell had recently taken to social media to warn netizens against the rampant use of fake profiles created across various apps and then misusing them for criminal purposes. Police have laid out several do’s and don’ts for social media users — the most important being to lock the profile on social media like Facebook.