Film and TV actress Karishma Kar was cheated online in a social media verification scam by a man claiming to be a musician. The Bangur Nagar police in Bombay have registered an FIR.
On November 22 last year, Karishma received a message on Instagram from one Guru, offering to get her social media verification (blue tick) for her Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat handles. Since Guru’s Instagram profile mentioned that he was a musician and because his was a verified handle, Karishma believed him. He asked her to pay him Rs. 32,000, which Karishma did in two instalments in December 2022. When her handles remained unverified for several weeks thereafter, she tried contacting him, but he blocked her on Instagram and stopped answering her calls and messages too.
In the past, Karishma Kar had been cheated of Rs. 51,000 by another individual in a similar scam.