Five held for impersonating Kolkata Police officers

The matter is under investigation, he said.Amid rising cases of online fraud, police cautioned the people, advising them not to befriend unknown people on social media.Fraudsters are trapping ordinary people using several innovative tricks and social media is becoming a big weapon for them to create such traps. It is always better to keep Facebook profiles locked, she said.

Four people were arrested and a minor detained near Kolkata for allegedly impersonating police officers and trying to extort people, police said on Thursday.

The accused were nabbed in a raid at a flat in Shapoorji Housing in Rajarhat on Wednesday night, acting on a complaint.

According to the complainant, he had received calls from unidentified numbers claiming to be of senior officers of Kolkata Police.

He was allegedly asked to cough up a huge amount of money to ''remove his name from a matter related to a sex racket''.

The accused were located with the help of mobile phone towers, a police officer said.

They also allegedly ran a sex racket at the Rajarhat apartment, he said.

''We are trying to find out whether these people have any connection with gangs based in Rajasthan's Bharatpur. The matter is under investigation,'' he said.

Amid rising cases of online fraud, police cautioned the people, advising them not to befriend unknown people on social media.

''Fraudsters are trapping ordinary people using several innovative tricks and social media is becoming a big weapon for them to create such traps. In this context, people should not share personal information on social media,'' an officer of Kolkata Police's anti-cyber crimes section said.

''Besides, it is better to avoid friendship with strangers on social networking sites. It is always better to keep Facebook profiles locked,'' she said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)