Indore: If you are active on social media, be careful as the cyber criminals can harm you financially and mentally. The cyber criminals hack your social media accounts and they demand money from the victim’s social media friends. In many cases, the accused created fake profiles of girls with the intention of defaming them after sending objectionable messages using hacked accounts after the girl refused to marry or befriend the accused. Surprisingly, such social media related crimes have increased by more than 50% this year compared to last year. According to cyber experts, mostly the girls are victims of social media related crimes. There are many cases in which the cyber cell has caught many criminals and put them behind bars.
It takes time to catch criminals
Cyber cell officials said that in some cases, it takes more time to catch criminals in Facebook, Instagram and other social media related crimes. After collecting the complete information of the relevant account, the information about the crime is given to the controller of the concerned site. Other than this, the cyber team has to track the IP address through which the crime was done. The help of technical investigation is also taken. This process can sometimes take more than a year.
Woman had to block her Facebook account
Annapurna area resident Swati Tiwari told the Free Press that her Facebook account was hacked a few months ago by a cyber criminal. The thug had identified some people from Swati's friend list and demanded money from them. Swati's aware family members and friends contacted her after seeing the message from her account when she came to know about the incident. After this incident, Swati had to block her Facebook account.
Hacking Facebook account, thugs ask for money
In many complaints received to cyber cell and crime branch, Facebook accounts of many people were hacked by the thugs after that money is sought in the name of help from that person's Facebook friends. The thugs especially hack the accounts of the prominent people so that they get money immediately after asking the people. The Facebook account of a city police officer, a senior doctor of MY Hospital and another officer was also hacked by the thugs recently. The miscreants also demanded money from their Facebook friends. These officials have lodged the complaints with the cyber cell officials.
Fake profile created to take revenge from girl
The State Cyber Cell caught a youth who tried to defame a girl by creating a fake Facebook profile, a couple of days ago. The girl had refused to marry the youth after which the accused created her fake profile and sent some messages to her friends. The accused also created a fake account of the girl on TikTok. The complaint was made by the girl in the year 2019.
Cheating in the name of selling a vehicle
In many cases of social media related frauds, the cyber criminals advertise on Facebook and other social media sites that they want to sell their two-wheeler or four-wheelers. The people, who contacted the accused to buy vehicles, were duped by the cyber criminals by asking them to send them money in advance. The thugs introduced themselves as Army officers and they showed fake identity cards to gain the trust of the people.
Beware of cyber criminals and keep changing your social media account passwords from time to time. Lodge a complaint with cyber cell immediately if your account is hacked.
- Jitendra Singh, Superintendent of Police (cyber cell), Indore
