A 75-year-old resident of Vasant Kunj fell sufferer to a sextortion rip-off and was cheated out of Rs 7.34 lakhs by cyber criminals. KN Joshi, the sufferer, was deceived by an specific video chat adopted by an extortion demand. In keeping with Joshi’s grievance filed with the Delhi Police on January 15, he obtained a message from a girl named Anjali Sharma, who initiated a video name throughout which a girl appeared nude. The decision abruptly ended after a couple of minutes.
Two days later, on January 17, Anjali shared a manipulated obscene video of Joshi and threatened to make it go viral on social media except he paid Rs 61,000. In response, Joshi promptly blocked the quantity.
To accentuate the coercion, one of many scammers impersonated former Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana, who retired in July 2022.
On January 25, Joshi obtained a missed name from an unknown quantity. When he returned the decision, the particular person claimed to be Asthana and talked about having details about Joshi’s video name with Anjali. The impersonator acknowledged that Anjali, whose precise title was Neha, was a drug smuggler and supplied Joshi with a duplicate of the First Data Report (FIR). The impersonator asserted that the video was circulating on YouTube and shared the contact data of Dhyaneshwar Bajirao.
Joshi contacted Bajirao, who demanded Rs 21,500 and Rs 43,000 by a digital pockets to delete the movies. Bajirao additionally assured Joshi that his cash can be refunded. Joshi gained some belief of their authenticity when Bajirao shared an e-mail stating that the video had been deleted. Regardless of paying Rs 64,500 in two instalments, Joshi’s ordeal didn’t finish because the fraudsters continued to request extra cash on varied pretexts.
The impersonator posing as Asthana and his associates fabricated elaborate tales about Anjali to extort as a lot cash as doable from Joshi. They launched Joshi to an individual named Ajay Kumar Ghagat, claiming he was an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), and insisted that Joshi pay him Rs 2 lakhs as a bribe (“chai pani” in colloquial phrases).
Subsequently, the ACP shared a video of a deceased particular person with Joshi and knowledgeable him that Anjali’s mom had dedicated suicide. Joshi was then instructed to deposit Rs 4 lakhs into her account. Over the course of three totally different dates, Joshi paid a complete of Rs 7,34,500.
An investigating police officer acknowledged that in such cyber crimes, fraudsters make use of pre-recorded specific movies of girls, which they play throughout video calls. Initially, recipients imagine they’re talking with an actual girl. In the course of the recorded name, these girls request that people undress or have interaction in obscene acts. The criminals file the victims’ actions and subsequently threaten to make the recordings viral on social media except a cost is made. The officer additionally famous situations the place people obtained calls however refused to take part in any indecent acts.
“Even then, they recorded the video of such folks, morphed it, and made it obscene. They shared it again to folks asking them to pay, in any other case, they might make it viral on social media,” the officer instructed the information company PTI. He additional revealed that the fraudsters exploit the title of a senior police officer to intimidate victims and typically even disguise themselves as cops whereas demanding substantial sums of cash.
The police have launched an investigation with the hope of creating progress and apprehending these chargeable for the crime.
