An 18-year-old boy was arrested on Thursday for allegedly impersonating an IPS officer.

Ankit Kumar Singh, police said, was allegedly sending text and WhatsApp messages to people saying they had police cases against them and that he could help them “settle” the cases if they paid |him.

The police said he had been using 29 different mobile phone sets for the past few weeks to contact his “targets”.

“He had masked his Internet protocol (IP) address hoping that was enough to avert the police glare. He would introduce himself as Mohammad Nooral Hossain, IPS cyber cell police officer of the city police,” said a senior officer in Lalbazar.

Sources in Lalbazar said there was no IPS officer of the name attached with Calcutta police at present.

The police said they had received a complaint on July 31 based on which a case was drawn up at cyber police station in Lalbazar.

During investigation, the cops found that Singh, a resident of Bally in Howrah.

One mobile phone, two SIM cards and a few forged documents were seized from his possession, an officer said.

The police have found that Singh had been extorting anything between Rs 2,000 and Rs 1 lakh from his victims.

He was produced before the court on Friday where he was remanded in police custody till August 13.

Calcutta police had recently arrested another man who had allegedly introduced |himself as an officer of the enforcement directorate and contacted a Trinamul Congress MP claiming he had a case against him with the central agency and that he could help the MP get rid of the charges if the latter agreed to pay him.