Mumbai: Man lodges police complaint after falling prey to sextortion

A new modus operandi of sextortion surfaced after a 27-year-old man fell prey to it recently. An employee of a private firm, the man received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number, followed by a video call, in which he first saw his own face, and then half of the image changed to another man indulging in an obscene activity. He disconnected the call immediately, but soon received a recording of the call, and was forced to pay money by the extortionist.

The accused threatened to share the video with the man’s friends and relatives if he refused to pay. The police said that in most cases the victim encounters a woman in an obscene video call, but this time there was a morphed live video of another man.

The Vile Parle police said the incident occurred on Sunday afternoon when the victim was at home. Later, with the blackmail message, the extortionist shared a QR code for the payment. The frightened complainant sent Rs 5,000 in three different transactions but kept on receiving increased demands for more. Harassed with this, he approached the police and got a criminal offence registered in the matter. The police have registered a case on the charges of punishment for extortion, criminal intimidation by anonymous communication and punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form.