KATHMANDU: Swindling is rife in the Kathmandu Valley with robbers posing themselves as celebrities and movie directors extracting money from the gullible people. In a recent incident, at least three girls were fleeced by a man who claimed to be a movie director. The cheater, who introduced himself as a movie director, showed his fake identity card and promised the girls a role in the movie he was making. Dreaming of becoming movie stars, the girls paid him more than Rs 100,000 in return for assignment in the movie. The fake director, whose name has not been disclsed by the law enforcement agencies, had also shown pictures of actors and actresses to the girls which later appeared to be fake. Data unveiled by the Metropolitan Police Range showed the incidences of robbery by persons posing themselves with fake identity cards has gone up from six cases in August to nine in September. “They are everywhere. Be it in shops, restaurants, bars and bus stops,” said Dadhiram Neupane, an inspector at the Metropolitan Police Range. “Police have collected evidences from those who were robbed off,” he said. “They see your moods and behaviours first and then get closer to you by offering roles in movie or other attractive professions,” he added. Neupane added, “These kinds of thieves are so clever that those girls gave him more than a lakh and waited for him to call them. These kind of thieves really use clever tactics and corrupt people’s mind easily”.