A Fake account of DCP west Bengaluru was created using the photo and name of SP Belagavi Sanjiv Patil.
The same modus operandi of asking for money in a private message was followed here as well was followed.
SP Belagavi has tweeted about the same
The police are already looking into the matter and the miscreants will be apprehended soon. People have to be cautious and never end up paying.
How to keep your identity safe on social media
Check your privacy settings
When setting up a social media account, make sure that you’ve adjusted the relevant privacy controls so that strangers won’t be able to view your personal details and posts.
To do this, go to the Settings tab on Facebook. Then click on “Privacy” and “Who can see your future posts.” You can set this to “Friends” or “Friends, Except,” which gives you the option to exclude certain people from reading your posts
Don’t include personal information in your user name or email address
Avoid including details in your user name or email address that could be used by fraudsters to piece together your identity.
Don’t accept invitations to connect from strangers
Don’t connect with strangers as this gives them access to this information, which they could use to commit fraud.
Be careful about what you post
Avoid sharing personal information, like your credit card number or holiday dates (you don’t want criminals to know when you won’t be at home).
Change your passwords regularly and dont keep the same password across the accounts
What to do if you are a victim of social media identity theft
For Facebook: You can find Facebook’s online instructions for reporting fake pages here.
If you don’t have a Facebook account but someone has created a fake account in your name, you can report the fraudulent account here.
For Twitter: You can report impersonated Twitter accounts here. Here is the link to file your impersonation report. It’s important to note that you don’t need a Twitter account to report a fake profile.
For LinkedIn:You can also report fake profiles on LinkedIn directly to the social media platform. Here’s the link.
For Instagram:You can report fake accounts created in the name of your business, organization, yourself, or your child here.
For Snapchat:You can report a safety concern — including an impersonated profile — on Snapchat by visiting the company’ssafety reporting page.
For Pinterest:Find a fake Pinterest profile in your name? You can report it directly to the social media platform at this link.
With inputs from us.norton.com