Delhi Police has reportedly busted a case of sextortion and blackmail where the members of a gang sent Facebook requests and lured men and young people by posing as women. The members of the gang initiated vulgar chats with the victims and later trapped them in vulgar videos.
According to the Cyber Cell of Delhi Police, the members of the gang operated from Bharatpur Rajasthan using phone numbers issued from Assam and sent friend requests to people all over the country using fake profiles of women.
The police said that the gang members would trap the victims in vulgar chats after their friend requests were accepted. Later the victims were also lured into obscene video calls which were recorded. The gang members then threatened the victims with the recorded vulgar video chats and to make them public if they did not pay the money they demanded.
Delhi Police Cyber Cell received 9 complaints relating to ‘sextortion’ and blackmail. The police have arrested Hakimuddin, a resident of Bharatpur, Rajasthan in connection to the case while three other members of the gang are on the run.
One of the complainants revealed that he received a Facebook friend request and later the sender wanted his WhatsApp number. After that, the complainant received a morphed vulgar video of him and was threatened to pay up if he did not want the video to be uploaded on the internet. The victim then had to pay ₹1,96,000 to the blackmailer.
The police busted the gang by chasing the money trail through the bank accounts the complainant had deposited money in. Accused Hakimuddin was arrested after police investigations into his phone number locations and social media accounts.
According to reports, the victims of the gang included doctors, retired police officers and teachers. KPS Malhotra, DCP of the Cyber Cell noted, “Most gangs operating from Bharatpur follow the same modus operandi. In some cases, to threaten the victims, the accused sometimes pose as police officers and even change their display photo on social media to convince them”.
