Tag: sextortion

  • CBI busts ‘sextortion’ racket, arrests one for blackmailing US-based Economics prof

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The CBI has busted a racket of “sextortionists”, arresting one who allegedly blackmailed an economics professor at California University into shelling out USD 48,000 threatening him with making public his sexually explicit video chats with a female gang member, officials said.

    Based on information received from the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the US, CBI arrested Rahul Kumar, a resident of Delhi’s Asola, while the search for his purported girlfriend who lured the professor into sending explicit videos on Facebook chat is going on, they said.

    The girl, who was chatting through Facebook, had befriended the economics professor of a prominent university on social media service chat platform, they said.

    In conspiracy with her purported partner Rahul Kumar, she diverted conversations towards sexual connotations, eventually asking the professor to record and send his sexually explicit video on September 10, 2021, they said.

    Once a video was received, she told the professor that her boyfriend Rahul had recorded the video, they said.

    The duo started blackmailing the US-based professor with threats to make send the video to authorities in the university and some prominent US-based journalists, they said.

    “Rahul, using his accounts [email protected] and [email protected], started sending extortionist threats related to the sexually explicit video chat to the professor demanding money and other valuable things from him for deleting the video and directed him to make the monetary payments to his PayPal account,” the CBI FIR has alleged.

    The alleged blackmail went on for over a year, during which repeated money transfers took place in the Paypal account of Rahul, as directed by him.

    Over USD 48,000 (approximately Rs 38 lakh) was received from the victim, they said.

    Kumar later asked the professor for costly gifts such as Apple iPhone chargers and headsets, following which the professor filed a complaint with the US Department of Justice, which handed over the matter to the FBI, they said.

    The FBI got in touch with the CBI where International Operation Division registered a case, tracked the person and arrested Rahul while the search for his purported girlfriend is going on, they said.

    “A case was registered by International Operation Division of CBI against a private person resident of New Delhi & Others on certain allegations including sextortion of a Professor at a prominent University in the USA on the inputs received from the USA,” CBI said in a statement.

    NEW DELHI: The CBI has busted a racket of “sextortionists”, arresting one who allegedly blackmailed an economics professor at California University into shelling out USD 48,000 threatening him with making public his sexually explicit video chats with a female gang member, officials said.

    Based on information received from the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the US, CBI arrested Rahul Kumar, a resident of Delhi’s Asola, while the search for his purported girlfriend who lured the professor into sending explicit videos on Facebook chat is going on, they said.

    The girl, who was chatting through Facebook, had befriended the economics professor of a prominent university on social media service chat platform, they said.

    In conspiracy with her purported partner Rahul Kumar, she diverted conversations towards sexual connotations, eventually asking the professor to record and send his sexually explicit video on September 10, 2021, they said.

    Once a video was received, she told the professor that her boyfriend Rahul had recorded the video, they said.

    The duo started blackmailing the US-based professor with threats to make send the video to authorities in the university and some prominent US-based journalists, they said.

    “Rahul, using his accounts [email protected] and [email protected], started sending extortionist threats related to the sexually explicit video chat to the professor demanding money and other valuable things from him for deleting the video and directed him to make the monetary payments to his PayPal account,” the CBI FIR has alleged.

    The alleged blackmail went on for over a year, during which repeated money transfers took place in the Paypal account of Rahul, as directed by him.

    Over USD 48,000 (approximately Rs 38 lakh) was received from the victim, they said.

    Kumar later asked the professor for costly gifts such as Apple iPhone chargers and headsets, following which the professor filed a complaint with the US Department of Justice, which handed over the matter to the FBI, they said.

    The FBI got in touch with the CBI where International Operation Division registered a case, tracked the person and arrested Rahul while the search for his purported girlfriend is going on, they said.

    “A case was registered by International Operation Division of CBI against a private person resident of New Delhi & Others on certain allegations including sextortion of a Professor at a prominent University in the USA on the inputs received from the USA,” CBI said in a statement.

  • Sextortion gangs are back with Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp video calls showing porn clips

    By IANS

    NEW DELHI: A 35-year-old professor from the University of Delhi recently received a video call on Facebook Messenger from an anonymous number. To his horror, a nude girl appeared on the other side. Before he could disconnect the call, cyber criminals made a quick video of the professor watching the porn clip, and the harassment began.

    “It was around 2 a.m. when I received a call from an unknown person on Facebook Messenger. When I received the call, I saw a nude girl on the other end. I disconnected the call immediately. However, before I could figure out what exactly happened, I received a few screenshots of my video call on Messenger,” a shaken professor told IANS on the condition of anonymity.

    Starting to panic, he immediately blocked the user. After an hour, the professor got an audio call where another man asked him to pay Rs 20,000 via a digital payment app within five minutes, else he would post these screenshots on Facebook for his friends and family community to see.

    “I was nervous and deactivated my Facebook account. Nothing happened after that night to date but I’m still worried,” he said.

    Such anonymous video calls on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are growing in India and the relevant authorities are unable to stop such activities.

    According to cyber experts, in a reminiscence of Jamtara-type mobile frauds, the notorious gangs of Mewat region have resurfaced, extorting money from people by blackmailing them with such WhatsApp video callings.

    The gangs operate in the Mewat region of Haryana. Further, Bhiwadi, Tijara, Kishangarh Bas, Ramgarh, Laxmangarh in Alwar and Nagar, Pahadi and Govindgarh in Bharatpur also are the main areas where these cyber thugs are operating from.

    In October, the Crime Branch of Delhi Police claimed to have arrested the mastermind of an interstate sextortion gang from Rajasthan’s Bharatpur.

    According to police, the gang led by Nasir (25) has been indulging in extorting money from reputed persons after blackmailing them with their obscene pictures and videos.

    At least 36 gangs have been busted and 600 accused arrested by Alwar police in the ‘sextortion’ case.

    In the pandemic, there has been a surge in such activities. Cyber criminals run recorded porn videos, and then send your recording back to you, asking for money which could be anywhere from Rs 10,000 to over a few lakh.

    “If denied, they threaten to share your porn-watching video in your social media circles and the mental harassment begins afterwards,” independent cyber security researcher Rajshekhar Rajaharia told IANS.

    A Delhi-NCR based journalist faced the same situation this month when he received a WhatsApp video call and saw a nude girl.

    Surprised as well as confused, he immediately disconnected the call. He later received some screenshots as well a video recorded from the person who called him.

    “The person told me that he is going to send these videos to everyone on social media and asked me to pay Rs 23,000 immediately to delete the video. I blocked him but then, I started getting calls from unknown numbers asking me to transfer the money. I blocked them and turned off my phone for a few hours,” the journalist told IANS.

    He later did not receive any more calls.

    According to Rajaharia, if you do not give in to their demands immediately, there are chances that they won’t share your porn video with others, as doing this will invite trouble for them if the person goes to cyber police with their contact details.

    “However, the victims must quickly contact the cyber branch of police in their respective areas. When you receive an anonymous call, do not pick it immediately. Try to find out the identity of that anonymous person via SMS or WhatsApp chat first, and then check if that person belongs to your known circle of acquaintances or not,” the cyber expert advised.

    “Even if you have taken the anonymous WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger video call, switch off or cover your camera,” he added.