From commoners to MLAs: ‘Sextortion’ continues to haunt people in Karnataka

A young doctor died by suicide in Bengaluru after falling prey to a ‘sextortion’ attempt by a 22-year-old from Bhopal in August 2021. The doctor was coaxed into sharing his nude photographs by a person he thought was a girl. The ‘girl’ turned out to be Sarthak Sathi and the doctor had paid Sashi around Rs 67,000 before ending his life out of fear of being humiliated in front of his family members, friends, and colleagues.

Even the police have been victims of ‘sextortion’. In September this year, a woman called Assistant Commissioner of Police (VVIP Security) Vaijanath on WhatsApp and started stripping. He, as Thippareddy, was quick to disconnect the call. However, the woman who made the call started sending messages demanding money to keep the video under wraps. Vaijnath filed a complaint with the cyber crime police station.

These crimes are also part of the new category of crimes aided by technology. While most of these cases involve blackmailing victims with videos and photos, others allegedly make use of deep-fakes to harass and extort victims, say the police.

What is ‘sextortion’?

Sextortion is a crime where the victim is blackmailed using sensitive or private photos or videos. Generally, the extorter manages to get a private photo or video of the victim and threatens to share it on social media platforms or with friends and family members to extort money or other favours. There are instances where they threaten to upload videos on pornographic websites.

There are various other tactics employed by criminals. Some of the accused are men, who impersonate women and share photos of other women with their victims and lure them to share theirs. Once the victim shares it, the extortion begins. While Facebook profiles were targeted previously, now Instagram has become a hub for ‘sextorters’, according to the police.

In some cases, as that of Thippareddy, the victim gets a WhatsApp video call and the accused starts screen recording it. Usually, there are women stripping at the other end of the call to trap the victims. But there are instances where the caller’s screen is blank and images or videos are superimposed later.

There are some organised gangs which are involved in it, said a police officer from the central division CEN police station. One of the gangs was busted in September 2021, when a team of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) probing a case registered in Bengaluru arrested three people in Rajasthan allegedly involved in ‘sextortion’. The police were probing a case reported by a 45-year-old man who had befriended a woman on Facebook with whom he had shared private moments on a video call. Later, he was threatened and forced to transfer money.

The information about the three accused was shared with the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre and a detailed analysis established links of the arrested to an astounding 3951 cases across the country. Their probe showed one of the accused had a SIM card agency retailer-ship and had activated more than 5,000 SIM cards only for the purpose of calling the victims and linked these cards with e-wallets of digital payment platforms.

It’s not just unknown extorters, victims have been scammed by their former boyfriend or girlfriend who act out of anger or with vengeful motives.

According to the cyber cell of the CID, there was a surge in the number of instances where attractive fake profiles are created by criminals on social media, dating sites, matrimonial sites, and others. The scammers use them to entice and induce men to share their private pictures or videos, which are later used for extorting. They also threaten to approach the victims’ immediate family members with these compromising photos and videos.

How can you prevent ‘sextortion’?

Wary of these developments, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) issued an advisory this year with several instructions to avoid falling prey to ‘sextortion’.

The advisory said:

– People are advised to not fall prey to such frauds and exercise caution while accepting any friend request from an unknown person/s.

– To use privacy controls provided by social media sites to avoid any misuse of information.

– In case of any instances, where the demand for money is made, incidents should be reported to jurisdictional Cyber Crime/ CEN Police Stations immediately.

– People should be careful if the person on the other side is trying to develop intimacy.

– Never share or allow anyone to view/capture any private or intimate activity on any platform.

– In case of victimisation, details about how the accused got in touch and the platform will help in the investigation. Screenshots of the conversation/alleged profile on social media/SMS/email etc and details of bank account(s), if any payment is already made, will also help.