Uttar Pradesh STF arrests 3 for duping people with fake social media pages

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) on Saturday arrested the kingpin and two members of an organised cyber fraud gang that allegedly created fake social media pages in the names of prominent ‘chikankari' companies to dupe customers across the country. The arrests were made in Kolkata.
Those arrested were Mohammad Saeed Hussain alias Zeeshan (19), a hotel management student at IIHM College; Mohammad Jabir (25), a B.Com graduate; and Zainab Zakir (19), a Class 12 pass-out. All three are residents of Kolkata. The arrests took place around 5:15 PM in the Ekbalpur police station area in Kolkata.
According to STF officials, they had received information over the past few months about an organised gang creating fake pages of well-known ‘chikankari' companies on platforms like Instagram to commit online fraud. Acting on these inputs, STF teams, under the supervision of Additional SP Vishal Vikram Singh, activated cyber surveillance and began technical monitoring.
Additional SP Vishal Vikram Singh said that during intelligence gathering, it was found that on April 7, Atharva Arya, owner of Mehrkari Chikan Company in Hazratganj, Lucknow, lodged an FIR stating that a fake Instagram account was created using his company's name and GST number. "Customers were being lured with fabricated invoices and order confirmations, leading to widespread financial fraud across India. Using a combination of technical analysis and human intelligence, the STF tracked the suspects to Kolkata and arrested them," said Singh.
ASP Singh said interrogation revealed that Mohammad Saeed Hussain, a hotel management student, was introduced to cyber fraud by his maternal cousin Mohammad Jabir, who had prior experience working for a company involved in "tech support" frauds. "Jabir allegedly proposed the idea of creating fake pages to Saeed Hussain and Zainab Zakir. Starting in January 2025, they created multiple fake Instagram accounts using the names of reputed chikankari brands. They sourced product images from legitimate company profiles like Najakat Chikan Company and reposted them on newly created fake profiles such as ‘The Chikankari' and others," Singh said.
He added that once they received online orders, they fabricated invoices using GST numbers and addresses of real companies, edited with mobile apps like PicsArt, and sent them to customers over WhatsApp. "Payments were collected via UPI IDs and bank accounts provided by an associate named Rohit Manna, a fellow IIHM student. Debit cards for these accounts were kept by Saeed, who would withdraw the money in cash and distribute it among the gang members," Singh said.