Crooks create fake FB profile of Telangana AG, attempt to swindle money

Hyderabad: The widespread impersonation of Facebook profiles by cyber crooks, which has been continuing unabated despite several complaints to Facebook, went right up to the State’s Advocate General on Wednesday, with the crooks repeating the same modus operandi of using well-known profiles to swindle money.

The vulnerability of Facebook profiles to fake ones was once again in the spotlight when the Telangana AG B Shivananda Prasad approached the Hyderabad Cybercrime Police, stating that he had come to know through his relatives that a profile similar to his actual account was created and that the impersonator had sent requests asking for emergency financial assistance.
“The impersonator used the photograph of the AG and copied all details from his original Facebook account. Fortunately, none of his contacts transferred money. Based on his complaint, a case has been booked,” Hyderabad Cybercrime ACP KVM Prasad said, who said the fake account was reported on Facebook, following which it was deleted.

The trend of such fake profiles on Facebook has been on an unprecedented high in recent times, with accounts of several people on the social networking site being duplicated, with friend requests sent to known people first, followed by requests for urgent financial assistance citing various reasons, mostly starting with the question whether the recipient had Google Pay.