Kollywood actor Shanthnoo Bhagyaraj lodged a complaint with the city police on Wednesday alleging that imposters had created a fake profile in his name in a social networking site and cheated students and girl fans.
Shanthnoo, son of actor and director K Bhagyaraj, said he had created a profile in his name on a popular social networking site and had been using it to interact with fans and friends and had been posting his photographs and those of his new films. After lodging a complaint with the cops, Shanthnoo said he found a fake profile in his name being active in the same site that had been damaging his reputation.
The actor said he identified Riyas, reportedly living in the city, who along with his friends had been indulging in the impersonation. The actor explained that a fake profile in his name was created and his pictures from his original profile were copied onto it. Through the fake profile, the impersonator had conversed with the actor’s fans, including students and girls, and had taken money from them.
“The impersonator convinced them saying it was an emergency and took sums like Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000. He even took money for mobile recharge and gave them false promises. Riyas met the people claiming to be my friend and took the money. I suspect that Riyas was the one who created the fake profile,” the actor said.
He further added that the fake profile had been active on and off for the past three years and that he came to know of it only two months ago through his friends. “Some of the girls who gave money to him are from Chennai and Coimbatore. After he was warned, he de-activated that account for a week and once again activated it,” the actor said and added that he had submitted the contact number of Riyas to the cops and sought their help.
