Beware of strangers, warns police
SHILLONG: To buttress the fight against the rising crimes on social networking sites, the State Police have issued an advisory to the users of “Facebook” which has become the part and parcel of the life of today’s youth besides catering to people of other age groups.
In recent times, criminals have come up with diverse ideas to dupe people through the medium of “Facebook” which is accessed by millions across the country.
East Khasi Hills SP M Kharkrang on Tuesday said that the latest type of crime being reported from the district is by the use of Facebook, when criminals befriend female users of Facebook while claiming to be located in foreign land.
After establishing friendship, they inform that they will be visiting India or that they will be sending a parcel of items to the victim in question.
Later, the criminals inform the victim that they have been detained in the airport or that the parcel has been detained by customs for which they need urgent money to clear the payment.
The victim is then asked to deposit a certain amount of money into an account of another person in India.
“Only after depositing the money and lapse of time does the victim realize that she has been duped by her Facebook friend,” Kharkrang added.
In this connection, three or four cases have been registered but no arrests have been made so far.
According to Kharkrang, users of the Facebook must be cautious of strangers on these social networking sites.
In addition, the Police have also asked users to be cautious of people who call claiming to be SBI personnel asking for ATM number and pin number to revamp the system and are later misused by the callers to buy items online depleting balance in the particular account.