Fake Facebook Account Impersonating Police Commissioner of Nagpur for Money Scam
In a recurring cybercrime incident, cybercriminals have once again targeted the Commissioner of Police, Amitesh Kumar, creating a fake Facebook account in his name to request money from unsuspecting victims. This marks the third such attempt on the police commissioner, with previous incidents occurring in 2021 and July of the current year.
Scammers often use this tactic, creating fake Facebook accounts impersonating known personalities, including senior IAS and IPS officials.
The recent case came to light when a recipient received a message from the fake CP account, prompting the recipient to search for the commissioner's phone number and contact him directly. The scammers had sent friend requests to many people, including the commissioner's Facebook friends.
Commissioner Amitesh Kumar issued a message from his authentic Facebook account, cautioning everyone to exercise vigilance and avoid sharing personal information or engaging in financial transactions with the imposter account. He urged individuals to verify the authenticity of any social media accounts claiming to be his own.
According to a police official, such incidents are common and can be challenging to address. Facebook accounts are often difficult to have taken down, and tracking the impostors can be challenging as they often use fake information. In some cases, the phone numbers used for KYC may belong to unsuspecting individuals who are unaware of the account's misuse.
Police were in the process of registering a complaint and attempting to contact Facebook to have the fake account removed as of Sunday evening. In a similar incident in July, a man lost a significant amount of money to a fake profile of a senior police inspector who demanded money from Facebook friends.
The investigation into this latest case is being conducted by the cyber police team under the guidance of DCP Archit Chandak and led by PI Amit Dolas.
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