Facebook remains a popular social networking platform for Indians amid COVID pandemic to share their life events and track what's happening in friends' lives. But the timelines of Facebook users are infected with a cybercrime, one that's proven hard to identify if users are not paying attention. Many fake accounts of Facebook users have emerged on the platform and miscreants are using them to seek out financial aid from trusted contacts.
Fraudsters are cloning some popular Facebook profiles, mostly public ones, by using the same display name, display picture, and other information. Once the Facebook profiles are successfully cloned, down the last detail, they are used to send messages to many contacts in the friend list asking for money.
The miscreants are even using COVID plea, claiming of financial crisis and sharing links to mobile wallets for transferring the money. What's shocking is that miscreants are even cloning accounts of IPS officers and ministers. International Business Times reviewed several such fake accounts of IPS officers, which were used to seek financial aid from unsuspecting people on Facebook.
Fake FB profiles on prowl
The Facebook account of former Bengaluru City Police Commissioner and current ADGP Internal Security, Karnataka, Bhaskar Rao, IPS, was also cloned to and used as bait to demand money from other users. Taking note of the scam, the IPS officer put out a statement to ignore any requests for money.
The Vice-Chancellor at Makhanlal Chaturvedi University, KG Suresh, also informed his followers on Facebook that a fake account in his name was created and the fraudsters was asking for money.
Similarly, IPS officer and deputy commissioner of police Ajay Chaudhary and Haresh Dudhat, who is superintendent of police and deputy director of the Gujarat Police Academy at Karai, Patna ADG (security) Bachchu Singh Meena are some of the IPS officers who fell victim to this elaborate scam. After realising scamsters were using their identity to demand money from Facebook users, they warned their followers to avoid falling for the trap and never share any money.
"I realised a fake account was created when my friends called me and said they were going to the bank to deposit the money in the bank," Choudhary said.
The minister for cooperative Subhash Singh was also a victim of the scam, where a fake account was demanding money from his supporters. The incident only came to light after one Nilesh Kumar Mishra, a resident of Tiwari Mathania village of Gopalganj district, was asked to pay ₹50,000. Another minister, minor water resources and irrigation minister Santosh Kumar Suman's fake FB account was also demanding money his friend.
Other victims are principal secretary (education) Sanjay Kumar, primary education director Ranjit Kumar Singh, Banka DM Suharsh Bhagat, former Munger DM Rajesh Meena, Lakhisarai SP Sunil Kumar, former DGP Gupteshwar Pandey and Director general (training) and managing director of Bihar Police Building Construction Corporation, Alok Raj, HT reported.
