Four conman from Rajasthan has been arrested by the Bengaluru police, allegedly, for impersonating public figures, government officers, police officials on social media to dupe their friends and followers into transferring money to the accused.

According to the police, the accused — identified as Ansar, Balvinder Singh, Saini, and Saddam — were arrested after the investigating team visited Bharatpur and other places in Rajasthan based on leads received during the probe.

In the past few months, the Cybercrime Division had registered at least four cases based on several incidents. “Over 10 such cases were filed in different police stations across Karnataka after which a team including K R Nagaraj (DSP, Cyber Crimes Division, CID), and Nayaz Ahmed (Police Inspector, CCD, CID) was formed to investigate the matter,” an officer from the Bengaluru Cybercrime Division said.

Evidence collected by the police include photographs and other personal and professional information of genuine people to create fake social media profiles in their names.

“In the guise of such profiles, they first send friend requests to people who are already there on the friends’ list. Upon acceptance of friend request, they induce the persons to transfer money to various e-wallets and payment bank accounts citing some urgent need, thereby cheating them,” the officer said.

Further, the supervising team advised the public not to fall prey to such frauds and to exercise caution while accepting any request from government officers, especially from those who are already there in the friends’ list. “Privacy controls provided by the social media sites may be used to avoid any misuse of information,” it said.

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