Fake social media accounts bog down officers' initiatives

Hyderabad: The increasing creation of fake social media profiles in the name of Telangana Bureaucrats mainly the State Secretaries, District Collectors and Police officials has posed a big challenge for 'Babus' to communicate with people about the official programmes and also update the regular developments on the social media.

To counter the fake account menace, the state Cyber Security wing has created a separate help desk to address the grievances of senior officials.

State Municipal Administration and Urban Development Secretary Arvind Kumar was the latest victim of a fake facebook profile in his name. Arvind had to quit the social media platform on which he was active sharing the development programmes on a regular basis. It is reported that the fake account creator has sought some financial assistance from some of the close associates of Arvind.

As he came to know about it, Arvind alerted all his facebook friends about the fake account and not to accept the friend requests from his name. State IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan, Nirmal Collector Mohammed Musharraf Ali, Nizamabad Collector C Narayana Reddy and Nalgonda SP (Superintendent of Police ) Ranganath were also the victims of fake social media profiles created by some online fraudsters for monetary benefits.

The cyber wing officials have been asked to create a foolproof mechanism to maintain the social media accounts of the officials safe and secure.