In another incident of fake Facebook profile con, a senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from Maharashtra became the victim. An unidentified cyber fraudster created a fake Facebook profile of Vinoy Kumar Choubey, additional director general, anti-corruption bureau (ACB), Maharashtra on Friday. He sent request to Many friends, relatives, policemen, journalists and other people on Choubey’s friend list and then tried to extract money.
The profile picture on fake account was same as the his original account.
The fraudster sent messages to those who accepted his friend requests, asking them to help him financially including a journalist. According to the journalist, he received the request to send ₹20,000 claiming wife of one of his friends was serious. “Since I knew the senior officer well, I immediately informed him about the cyber con,” said the journalist.
Many senior officers also started receiving phone calls and messages from other friends too about the fake Facebook account, the police said.
Mr. Chaubeyan who is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, reported the matter to the cyber police. The fake account has been now taken down and investigation has been started.
Referreing to the incident Chaubey tweeted, “Someone has created a fake FB account with my name and photograph. He is sending friend requests from this fake account with some ulterior motives. Please don’t accept any such friend request. The concerned authorities have been informed and they are taking appropriate action.”
