Mira Bhayandar: Salon owner fleeced of Rs 1.75 Lakh in sextortion scam

A 36-year-old salon owner from Kashimira became the latest target of cyber-criminals after losing more than Rs. 1.74 lakh to the notorious sextortion scam.

In his statement to the police, the complainant said that he received a video call from an unknown number. After answering the call, he was shocked to see a nude woman on the other end. The complainant disconnected the call, but the same episode continued for the next three days, following which the woman who had apparently recorded the video with the man in the frame, started demanding money for not uploading the content on social media platforms. The complainant, however, did not give in to her demands.

A few days later, he received an abusive voice call from an imposter who introduced himself as an officer from the cyber cell of Delhi police and claimed that his video had gone viral online on social media platforms. Minutes later, another person claiming to be a representative of the video-sharing platform called him and demanded Rs. 7,400 as deletion charges to remove the video. The horrified man transferred the amount to a specified digital wallet. However, the demands continued and the man ended up paying a total of Rs. 1,74,899 in various bank accounts as instructed by the cyber-criminals.

The man lodged a complaint with the Kashimira police, following which an offence under section 384 of the IPC for extortion and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act-2000 was registered against the unidentified trio on 13 October (Thursday). Further investigations were underway.