Gurgaon Man Dupes People by Creating Fake Social Media Profiles of Women 'Friends' by Taking Images from Facebook, Instagram
The Police was astonished to find that he had more than 1 million followers on one of the fake profiles run by him and made money by promoting products on the fake profiles.
Gurgaon, April 28: When a South Delhi woman from Lajpat Nagar area came across her profile on social media app Instagram, she was surprised as she had not created the account but the picture on the profile of the Instagram account was her. She immediately smelled a rat and complained to the police. What came out after the police investigation is another example of the fact that how important it is to protect one's data and images on social networking websites. After investigation, Delhi police held a 34-year-old commerce graduate named Akash Choudhary, who was not only the mind behind the fake profile of the girl but also operated multiple fake accounts in the name of several women and their images.
The modus operandi of the arrested man was that he used to send and accept requests on social media especially those of girls and women. He would later gain access to the photos once his friend request was accepted. Then, he would create fake accounts with pictures of those girls and lure men into chatting and other favours for money. The Delhi police has claimed that he duped one person from Mumbai of Rs 70,000. The Police was astonished to find that he had more than 1 million followers on one of the fake profiles run by him.
When the police finally traced him to Gurgaon and checked his laptops and mobile, it was clear that he was behind this 'fake profile business'. The police has informed that he even promoted products of several companies on these profile and social media platforms and earned a decent sum from the promotional activities. He was well aware of how to make money through online advertising, added Delhi police. He had also set up a shop with his father in Gurgaon. The police is now trying to ascertain if the accused has uploaded the names and photos of any of the women on porn or prostitution sites as the police and women fear that he may have done that to earn more money. The police has filed case against him under cyber crime laws and penal code.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 28, 2018 04:27 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).