[Senior IPS officer and Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh]
Mumbai: In a significant development, the Mumbai Police have busted an international racket involving creation of fake profiles on social media and other fraudulent activities in social media marketing business, and nabbed one person in this connection, Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh said here on Tuesday.
The accused was nabbed with analytical techint (technological-intelligence) and through sources, the Crime Branch swooped in Gauri Shankar Nagar in Kurla suburb and arrested the accused. He has been remanded to police custody till July 17.
Investigations reveal that the accused is part of a larger global fraud racket which involves creating crores of fake identities on various social media platforms and making fake performance statistics like fake followers, fake comments, fake views etc., to inflate the influencers' performance statistics.
Given the huge ramifications of the unfolding probe, Singh has announced the formation of a Special Investigation Team of CIU and Cyber Cell under Deputy Commissioner of Police (Detection), Nandkumar Thakur, to unravel and curb these malpractices.
This will be the first ever SIT of such a kind that will investigate the illegal aspects of social media marketing businesses operating in violation of the IT Act, said Singh.
The police chief said that the accused has so far created over half-a-million fake followers for 176 profiles of Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and other social media platforms in order to fraudulently project them as influencers, through manual operations or using certain illegal softwares called ‘bots'.
The lid of the mega-scam was blown off following a complaint by Bollywood playback singer Bhoomi Trivedi, who approached Singh on Saturday (July 11), demanding action after some unknown person/s purportedly created her fake profile on Instagram and how they were approaching other film personalities to create such profiles for them.
Singh directed the Crime Branch to investigate and Joint Commissioner of Police, V.K. Choubey, ordered the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) to take up the probe, even as a case was registered with the Bangurnagar police station in Goregaon.
The probe revealed that by manipulating the existing systems of respective social networks, these racketeers posted such fake followers, and over 100 portals are reportedly involved in these frauds all over India. The arrested accused worked for one such portal, "www.followerskart.com", according to the police.
The Police Commissioner said that this is the first time such a racket with international ramifications has been busted in the country, and such fake profiles and followers are also being used to create rumours and panic in the society.
The CIU probe found that more than 100 such Social Media Marketing (SMM) portals provide fake followers etc. through fake identities and/or bots, and the scamsters operate through Indian and international Internet networks and servers.
The CIU has already identified 54 such Indian portals and now action is being initiated against them, he said.
For all the latest News, Opinions and Views, download ummid.com App.
Select Language To Read in Urdu, Hindi, Marathi or Arabic.
'China gave better deal': Cong slams Modi Govt as Iran drops India from key railway project
CBSE 12th Topper 2020: Divyanshi Jain, Tushar Singh get 100% marks in all subjects
Also Read
CBSE 12th Result 2020: Trivandrum top district, JNV 1st among institutions
CBSE 12th result 2020 declared without Toppers List
Corona count declines in Mumbai, surges in rest of Maharashtra
Gujarat detects 915 new Corona cases Tuesday, tally surges past 43K
Modi govt imposes Rs 84 cr penalty on news agency PTI
Russia's Sechenov varsity claims successful human trials of Covid-19 vaccine
Tinkering With School Syllabus
'Shocking': Mamata as CBSE drops Secularism, other topics from syllabus
Apple rolls out new coding tools, here is full list with summary
NSDC India, Microsoft join hands to impart digital skills to 1 lakh youth
Outrage in India over Nepali PM Oli's Ayodhya claims
India created a fake Ayodhya: Nepali PM
'Open Provocation': World reacts to Erdogan reconverting Hagia Sophia into a mosque
Istanbul's Hagia Sophia mosque reverberates with Azaan after 85 years
Vikas Dubey Encounter: Video clips punch holes in STF theory
Vikas Dubey killed in shootout with STF: UP Police
'Mein huin Vikas Dubey': UP gangster surrenders in Bollywood style