And once the victim falls for the trap and pays the amount, then more money is extorted through impersonation. If the victim indulges, then a request for WhatsApp video call is sent and obscene videos are shown from a different phone, while the video call is simultaneously recorded to blackmail. The modus operandi of such frauds keeps changing periodically. The victims are usually befriended on Facebook and lured into conversations with nude images on messenger chats.
Out of 100 cases, at least 85 victims respond to the calls and 70 fall prey to the sextortion,” he said. “But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Malhotra said that in the last three years, 25 cases have been registered and 33 arrests made.
DCP (Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations) K.P.S. Also, the number of FIRs registered falls short of the complaints filed. However, the number of cases far exceeds the number of people who come forward to complain. Rakesh was a victim of sextortion, a crime where persons extort money by threatening victims into leaking private images and videos on the Internet.Ī senior police officer at the Cyber Cell told The Hindu that there has been an uptick in sextortion cases and complaints have doubled during the pandemic “Before COVID-19, we would receive one-two complaints a month now we get eight to nine,” the officer said. An FIR was registered under Sections 384 (punishment for extortion), 170 (impersonating a public servant), 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonesty), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 34 (common intention) of the IPC. It took him two months to file a complaint. He paid the amount and next, two persons impersonating as Delhi Police Crime Branch officer and YouTube official called him on WhatsApp video and demanded another ₹6.50 lakh by showing him a fake FIR. Or else, he was told, a recorded video call showing him watching the obscene video would be shared among his family members and also on social media. A minute later, an unknown caller threatened him to pay ₹80,000.
When he responded to the request, an obscene video came up on his screen and the call was disconnected shortly. “Hello, if you’re alone, then video-call me,” Rakesh*, 60, a businessman from Delhi, fell for the message on WhatsApp from an unsuspecting young woman in the second week of April this year.