Mumbai: Sextortionists target Parkinson’s victim, his hapless partner; siphon off over ₹1 lakh

At a time when the city police is overburdened with hundreds of sextortion cases, yet another senior citizen has fallen prey to the racket. A 68-year-old woman from Andheri coughed up Rs 1.46 lakh after which she lodged a police complaint.

According to the Oshiwara police, the victim's husband, who is suffering from Parkinson's disease, received a WhatsApp video call from an unknown woman on Wednesday night.

When he checked who was on the phone, the woman disconnected the call. He then called the number from which the call was received, but the woman disconnected the call again after she heard his voice. The next day, the victim started receiving several calls from another unknown number and the caller claimed to be a police officer.

The “officer” asked her to get the obscene video deleted, which had gone viral, or else a criminal case would be filed. The said fraudster then gave a number in order to get the video deleted from YouTube. The victim called on the number and was asked to transfer Rs 21,500 to a bank account.

The victim followed the instructions and paid the money, police said. The victim was again asked to pay Rs 43,000 and Rs 82,000 on the pretext of preventing the said video from getting viral on other social media platforms.

The victim later realised that she was being duped and lodged a police complaint. The police have registered a case under sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property)of the IndianPenalCodeandsections 66C (identity theft), 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource), and 67A (publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act, etc.,in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act.