Rajasthan natives, including a 17-year-old boy, were arrested by Thiruvananthapuram city cybercrime police on Thursday in connection with separate incidents of an online honey trap and creating fake Facebook profiles of senior police officers in the state, including IG P Vijayan for swindling money. 

Sukhdev Singh and Nahar Singh were caught for honey trapping a youth in Thiruvananthapuram, while the minor was detained for creating fake profiles of cops. The trio were arrested from Rajasthan by a team led by Cybercrime DySP T Shyam Lal who has camped there for the past two weeks. According to police, Nahar and Sukhdev had created a fake Facebook profile named Ankita Sharma by uploading fake pictures, and befriended the complainant, a Thiruvananthapuram-based youth. As the acquaintance grew through Facebook messenger, ‘Ankita’ requested his nude pictures to which he responded positively. Later, the accused revealed their identities, and started blackmailing him that the photos would be circulated on Whatsapp and other social media groups. 

Nahar and Sukhdev were traced to Kaman in Rajasthan using Geo-mapping method after getting details from Google and Whatsapp. It was revealed that the two had targeted many others, who uploaded pictures without any privacy protection, and trapped them in a similar manner. 

In a separate case, the same police team nabbed a 17-year-old boy for creating fake profiles of senior police officers of Kerala and those in other states for swindling money. He was arrested from a place under the Punhana police station limits. The boy had carried out the fraudulent activity using a mobile phone gifted by his parents for attending virtual classes. The police said more persons from Rajasthan and Haryana are involved in the similar crime and they will be nabbed soon. 

Earlier, the Kerala hi-tech crime enquiry cell had initiated a probe into attempts by fraudsters to swindle money by approaching people on social media. The fraudsters sent friend requests from fake Facebook accounts of senior IPS officers of the Kerala police seeking money in the guise of seeking donations for humanitarian work by the cops.

This news has been taken from Media reports and has not been edited.