The Chennai city police recently received its first complaint on identity theft on the popular photo-sharing network, Instagram. The social networking app, also featuring video-sharing and chatting options that are often linked to Facebook and Twitter, has gained immense popularity among smartphone users in recent times.
According to the police, a young girl has petitioned that her personal Instagram account has been duplicated by an unknown person and is being misused online.
Suspected to be the work of a prankster, photographs posted by the girl have been lifted using screenshots and a duplicate account has been created on Instagram.
The suspect has added (‘following’ in Instagram terms) a few friends of the complainant through the duplicated account and started chatting with them. After learning about it from one of her friends, the girl decided to lodge a complaint with the office of the police commissioner. Though there has been a steady flow of complaints regarding derogatory Facebook posts and profile duplication, a complaint pertaining to Instagram is the first.
