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| - Fact Check: Unmasking KBC scam 2.0 - fraudsters now posing as cops to dupe people
A doctored video of a Punjab police officer is being maliciously shared to scam people. Scammers are pretending to be CBI officers to further con people who have already fallen for 'KBC scams'.
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India Today Fact Check
This video is manipulated. It’s part of a scam that targets people who have already fallen for ‘KBC scams’ in the past.
Who in India hasn’t dreamt of participating in “Kaun Banega Crorepati”? The opportunity to meet Amitabh Bachchan, the chance to become a millionaire, and the thrill of a great quiz contest, the show promises it all. But this dream has also become an easy target for fraudsters, who have time and again duped people under the guise of KBC organisers.
Hapless victims, of course, turn to the police for help. But now, in what can easily be called a scam inside a scam, fraudsters are also pretending to be law enforcement officers helping people who have been duped by such “KBC scams”. Let’s take a look at what’s happening.
How are they doing it?
Take a look at the video below, which has been widely shared on various social media platforms and WhatsApp. It shows a police officer addressing victims of a KBC scam. In this video, the officer introduces himself as Kuldeep Singh, a Central Bureau of Investigation officer affiliated with “Kaun Banega Crorepati”, and urges victims of the scam to contact him via WhatsApp and promises to help them recover their lost funds.
Seems like a noble gesture, right? Well, appearances can be deceiving. A closer look at the video reveals a noticeable disparity between the officer's words and the movement of his lips, indicating that this too is a scam.
So, who is this officer?
A reverse search of the viral video's keyframes led us to a video posted on the YouTube page of the Punjab Police on April 23, 2022. In this Punjabi-language video, the officer identifies himself as Harshpreet Singh, the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) in Ludhiana Rural. Ironically, in the original video, Singh was cautioning the public about the perils of cyber fraud.
What does Harshpreet Singh say about this?
India Today reached out to Harshpreet Singh, currently ACP Cantt at Jalandhar, Punjab. Singh confirmed that he is the person seen in this video. “I have shared this manipulated video with my technical team, and we are diligently working to trace its source. Once we identify the responsible party, appropriate legal action will follow,” he said.
Funnily enough, Singh said that he too has registered FIRs related to a KBC fraud. “It's truly baffling that fraudsters are now leveraging my video to orchestrate this scam,” he added.
How is the doctored video being used to scam people?
Facebook posts containing this video direct users to various WhatsApp numbers. The archived version of one such post can be seen here.
One such number is "9126039054". This number’s WhatsApp features a uniformed police officer seated in an office as its profile picture. In the photo, one can see a nameplate on the table, bearing the name "Varinder Kumar Sharma IPS."
In the photo, we noticed that the reflection on the glass tabletop revealed a different name: “Akhilesh Kumar Chaurasia”. This made it clear that the name Varinder Kumar Sharma was digitally added to the nameplate in the photo.
We searched online and found that Akhilesh Kumar Chaurasia currently serves as the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Varanasi Range in Uttar Pradesh. Another number, "8144498066", being promoted with such posts, also had Chaurasia's image as its WhatsApp display picture.
Police officers or a ‘paan shop’ owner?
A search for the number "9126039054" on Google Pay revealed that it was registered under the name "Ravi Paan Shop". Another WhatsApp number linked to the viral video was registered on GPay as "Umar Faruk."
India Today reached out via WhatsApp to one of these numbers. The person, who identified themselves as CBI officer Kuldeep Singh, asked us to provide the number that had been scammed. However, we received no response from them following that.
Back in October 2021, India Today exposed a group of scammers posing as "KBC Officers", conning people with promises of wealth.
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