Mumbai: Bhandup-based MBA student duped of over Rs 4.68 lakh in sextortion

A 23-year-old student became a victim of sextortion and lost Rs 4.68 lakh to fraudsters who posed as YouTube officials. The local police registered an offence, however, no arrest has been made so far.

The incident took place on June 30 when the second-year student shared his contact number with a woman on a dating app. After he received a video call on Whatsapp from the woman's number in evening, a semi clad woman made vulgar gestures. The complainant took 4-5 minutes to realise something was fishy and he disconnected the call.

The student received a message on Whatsapp later that night along with the video call recording, saying that he should pay the woman money. And if he fails to do so, the video would be uploaded on social networking sites. The scared man blocked the number.

The other day, he got a voice message on the chatting app where the sender introduced himself as Sanjay Singh, claiming to have worked with YouTube. He also said that the video was being posted on YouTube and that he needs to pay a settlement of Rs 5,550 including Rs 550 as charge to delete the video and that the remaining was refundable.

The student paid the amount, however, he accused continued to demand more money using different pretexts and got him to pay Rs 4,68,201. Later, the student also received a call from a person called Ram Pandey, who claimed to be a part of legal team at YouTube. He demanded the student to send all the details in PDF format along with Rs 1.7 lakh as a charge, adding that if he didn't give money, they would lodge a complaint against him with police.

As the MBA student failed to arrange money, he narrated the ordeal to his father, who approached the police after realising his son was duped.

Published on: Monday, July 11, 2022, 01:04 PM IST