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Published 15:44 IST, November 1st 2020

CRPF warns jawans of Facebook cloning to extract confidential information, issues advisory

As CRPF jawans continue to report cases of social media cloning, Indian security forces issued advisories to jawans so that they do not fall in the trap.

Reported by: Gargi Rohatgi
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As CRPF jawans continue to report cases of social media cloning, Indian security forces issued advisories to alert jawans to avoid getting trapped by the enemy nations. The Indian security forces also sent across contents to educate jawans so that they do not fall in any trap and share sensitive information. It further informed the jawans that currently, cloning of Facebook profiles is one of the most common techniques which is being used to extract the country's strategic information. 

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Indian security forces warn CRPF jawans 

The letter issued by CRPF read, "It has been observed that anti-social elements and people with malicious intent are using Facebook profile cloning to target vulnerable users. This scam is also being used to target security forces and extract confidential information."

In order to avoid any further cases of social media cloning among jawans, CRPF authorities issued a letter that warns jawans about the practice of enemy nations to use fake profiles to extract information. The letter issued by CRPF authorities said that lately, it has been observed that many anti-social elements and people with negative intentions are cloning Facebook and other social media profiles of jawans to target 'vulnerable users'. The authorities have also issued this letter to the jawans who are currently deployed in sensitive places like Jammu and Kashmir and red zones. 

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Apart from this, CRPF's social media team has also come up with a special manual on social media cloning. This social media team is also using videos to educate and aware jawans about how Facebook profile cloning is used for targeting security force personnel. The video also educates the jawans on they can prevent social media cloning. 

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A senior CRPF official said that in the last few months, the jawans have filed many complaints saying that their friends and family members have been receiving requests on social media from their cloned profiles. In one of the reported incidents, a friend of a CRPF jawan, who was deployed in a sensitive location, was asked to share the details of his location because the jawan was 'untraceable'. Apart from asking information, the hackers have also demanded money from jawan's friends and family members. 

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(With ANI inputs)

Updated 15:44 IST, November 1st 2020