Sri Lanka Police has warned the public of a scam using social media and the fake logo of the Police Bureau for the Prevention of Abuse of Children and Women, to acquire confidential information from affected persons.
The Police said the Bureau for the Prevention of Abuse of Children and Women had set up a special operations centre with hotline 109 for victims of abuse to file complaints.
Stating that the details were collected via the hotline under strict confidentiality, the Police said the officers on duty only communicated via the hotline.
They said, however, it has come to light that various social media platforms, such as WhatsApp and Telegram, have been used under the accounts ‘slremover’ and ‘SL protection’ bearing the fake logo of the Bureau for the Prevention of Abuse of Children and Women to collect details from victims.
Investigations have found that the fraudsters had utilised the fake logos to receive confidential details and pictures from the victims, after which they used the information to threaten the victims.
The Police said complaints of abuse are collected only via the operations centre of the Bureau for the Prevention of Abuse of Children and Women and its hotline 109, and not via social media.
The Police request the public not to fall victim to fake social media accounts and share their confidential details.
Those who have fallen victim to the scam have been urged to inform the Prevention of Abuse of Children and Women via its hotline 109 or file a complaint with the Criminal Investigations Department (CID. (Newswire)
