Two, including teen, apprehended for extorting Rs 2.5L from man
According to police officials, the incident took place in June, when the victim was at his Matunga residence. The police said that the frauds had initially sent him a request from a fake profile on Instagram on June 14 where they posed as a woman.
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The police said that the frauds had initially sent him a request from a fake profile on Instagram on June 14 where they posed as a woman. (Representational image/File)Two persons including a 16-year-old were apprehended by the Mumbai police for allegedly extorting Rs 2.5 lakh worth of money from a 26-year-old man by threatening to circulate his nude video on social media. The police said that the frauds further posed as police officials from New Delhi and made him pay more money under the guise of helping him.
According to police officials, the incident took place in June, when the victim was at his Matunga residence. The police said that the frauds had initially sent him a request from a fake profile on Instagram on June 14 where they posed as a woman. As soon as he accepted the request, the police said that the frauds initiated a conversation with him and subsequently shared a phone number, following which they started chatting on Whatsapp.
An officer said, “The frauds flirted with him through the woman’s profile and as there was a positive response from the victim, they video called him and forced him to strip off his clothes.” The police said that after disconnecting the video call, the fraudsters sent him a video and demanded money.
“As the victim got scared, he blocked the phone number following which the frauds contacted him in the afternoon on June 15 posing as an assistant commissioner of police from the Delhi police’s cyber cell, they threatened to lodge a complaint against him,” said an investigator.
Subsequently, the victim got another call from a person, posing as an officer from the social media cyber crime department, who claimed that he will help him delete the videos from social media. “The victim was told that the video has been uploaded on YouTube and two other social media websites. The person then alleged that he will need Rs 31,500 to delete each video,” said a police officer.
The frauds even made him believe that they will return his money after the video is deleted. However, under different pretenses like facilitating the NOC certificate and providing the proof of deleting the video, the victim was forced to pay Rs 2,50,000 to the cyber criminals.
And when they demanded another Rs 47,000, he realised that he was being duped, following which he approached Matunga police and lodged a complaint. The investigators then scrutinised the bank account number in which the money was deposited. They also checked the email ID from which the Instagram account was opened and through its IP addresses and bank account details, they managed to get the registered phone numbers.
“With the help of phone numbers, the frauds were traced at Bharatpur in Rajasthan, following which a team was sent and an accused identified as Savir Hamida Khan (29) and his 16-year-old accomplice, were apprehended and brought to Mumbai,” said an officer.
The police said that the bank accounts used by the suspects have been frozen while they were trying to understand whether more people were involved. “We are also checking their Instagram accounts to ascertain how many people have been duped by them,” said an officer.
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