Miscreants create fake profile of Haveri doctor to get money

HAVERI: Cyberpolice in Haveri are investigating a case wherein a fake Facebook profile of a famous Haveri-based paediatrician Dr Rajkumar Marol was created to seek money from the doctor’s friends and well-wishers. Miscreants who created the doctor’s profile on the social media portal sent messages to his friends, requesting them for money – Rs 8,000 to be credited through digital wallets. It was only when a few friends called to inquire him about his troubles, necessitating financial assistance did Dr Marol learn of a fake profile having been created.
“The miscreants sent ‘Friend’ requests to those in my original profile, and started asking them for money. They sought money from 30 people, of whom two, lulled into believing that the request was from me, deposited the money to the digital wallet of the miscreants,” Dr Marol said.
In order to prevent more of his friends or relatives from being duped, he uploaded a post, wherein he warned them against giving any money since the pleas for money were being made from a fake account. Dr Marol proceeded to lodge a complaint at the cyber police station.
Dr Marol’s friend Santosh Aladakatti, who is the secretary of the BJP’s Haveri unit, was one of those whom the imposters requested money from. “The hacker asked for Rs 8,000 to be credited to the PhonePe account, and shared the mobile number. When I checked the number on TruCaller app, I learnt it was a West Bengal number, and realised that the Facebook account was fake,” Aladakatti said.
Cyber police station inspector Santosh Pawar said that miscreants, in addition to creating fake profiles on social media, were also trying to hack the original accounts. “There is always the chance of people ending up donating money when the miscreants use the name of someone as prominent as Dr Marol. We have started a probe into the case already,” Pawar said.