An imposter duped Andheri-based actor Anjali Badhoria of Rs 7 lakh by impersonating himself as producer Ekta Kapoor, owner of Balaji Telefilms, on a fake Facebook account, according to a report in an English daily.
The conman promised Badhoria of a role in Balaji Telefilms’ serials to extract money from her. The matter came to light when Badhoria asked the company about the role.
When the company came to know of the issue, they lodged a complaint with the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) cyber police station on December 2. “The fraudster created a fake Facebook profile of producer Ekta Kapoor and sent a friend invite to the victim. He made a false promise of a role in a telefilm under the Balaji Telefilms banner. The producer neither advertised nor made any friend request,” said employee Pratik Sanghvi.
Badhoria transferred funds after the fraudster communicated with her over Facebook chat and calls and told her about an opening in a telefilm. “Details have been sought from the bank to which she transferred the money. Also we are trying to get details if others also fell for the trap,” said an investigator to the news daily.
This is not the first time that fake accounts of Bollywood and TV stars have been used to dupe people. In September, superstar Salman Khan had filed a case after learning that a fake Facebook account had been opened in his name and the fraudster was asking those interested to be part of his new film to contact his manager.
A case has been registered under IPC sections for 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating) and under the IT Act sections 66 (C) (identity theft) and 66 (D) (cheating by personation by using computer resource), and Facebook authorities have been contacted to take down the page.