According to a Delhi Police statement, he would reach out to the men, send them messages to lure them into paying money into his mobile e-wallet for an interesting chat, or more.
GURGAON: A friend request to strangers on Facebook, or a follow on Instagram, was usually the first step. This gave Akash Choudhary access to loads of pictures of young women which he would download to create their fake profiles. Then, according to a Delhi Police statement, he would reach out to the men, send them messages to lure them into paying money into his mobile e-wallet for an interesting chat, or more. From one businessman in Mumbai, he is alleged to have taken Rs. 70,000.
The 34-year-old commerce graduate also leveraged the considerable following of these fake profiles on social media to promote various products: shoes, watches, sunglasses, clothes and even a cab service. "He was in contact with 5-7 companies for promotion of their products", said Chinmoy Bizwal, a senior Delhi Police officer in a statement.
He was doing well for himself, far better than the call centre job that he got himself when his family first shifted to Gurgaon from Bihar more than a decade earlier. One of his fake profile even has 1 million followers.
His success, however, may have proven to be his undoing.
A woman from south Delhi's Lajpat Nagar area came across her pictures on Instagram and figured someone had created her fake profiles and was promoting some brands.
According to her complaint to the Lajpat Nagar police in January this year, someone also sent her on her Facebook, claiming that he had been duped by one of these fake profiles.
The woman said she had learnt about the fake profiles in 2017 and when she demanded that her pictures be removed, she was told to give more pictures else he would post her picture on websites advertising escort services.