Aluva: Alarmed by a series of incidents in which fake Facebook accounts of police officers were created to cheat money, the police with the assistance of Cyber Cell have launched an investigation to nab the fraudsters.

The latest instance was the creation of a fake Facebook account of District Narcotic Cell (Rural) DySP and Student Police Cadet nodal officer M R Madhu Babu and attempt to steal money.

During the last eight months rural SP K Karthekeyan has received over 250 complaints in connection with fake Facebook accounts and profiles. However, this is the first time that they came across a fake Facebook account of a police officer in their area which was created with the purpose of cheating.

It was only after his friends enquired about two Facebook accounts that the DySP became suspicious and finally came to know about the fraud. Subsequently he submitted a complaint with the SP for further action.

The fraudsters created the fake Facebook account using all pictures and information from the police officer’s original account under the name of Madhubabu Raghav. The accused retained the same name for the fake page.

The modus operandi of those behind the creation of fake Facebook accounts is to first get in touch with people on the police officer's friends list and steal money via google app on the pretext of seeking donations or financial assistance for humanitarian works.

They used to send friends requests to people who look affluent and then fraudulently add them to the friends list of fake IDs. Only last month fraudsters had created a fake Facebook profile of Varantharappilly SI I C Chithranjan and carried out a similar cheating. Messages were sent to his friends from the original Facebook account and cheated money.

In another instance, a fake Facebook account of Kannur Vigilance SI and Taliparamba native T P Sumesh was created and money was swindled by sending an appeal for monetary help.