Mumbai: A 24-year-old engineer based in Kanjurmarg fell prey to cyber fraudsters ending up losing Rs 1 lakh in sextortion. According to the victim, the incident happened on March 24, at around 11:30 pm when he was on his Instagram profile and noticed a follow request from a woman named Vaishali Goli (@vaishali_goli_1252) and he accepted it.
Shortly after, they started chatting when Vaishali asked the victim for his WhatsApp number. They resumed the conversation on WhatsApp after which she asked him if he would like to connect via WhatsApp video call.
During the video call, Vaishali told the victim to go to his bathroom and told him to undress himself, but he allegedly denied it. When he denied it, she started to remove her clothes. After their video call ended, the victim received a video on his WhatsApp with a threatening message that said the video would be sent to the victim's friends on Instagram.
He was told to pay Rs 10,000 to a UPI ID under the name of Mrs Kiran Bala if he didn’t want that to happen. Worried and confused, the victim paid Rs 7,000 but he was told to pay the remaining Rs 3,000.
Vaishali said if he now wanted her to delete the video from her phone gallery, he would have to pay Rs 18,000, he did. The victim was told to pay Rs 40,000 to ‘permanently delete’ the video. To delete the Instagram chat, he was told to pay Rs 10,000, he did.
Another unknown person, from an unknown number allegedly called the victim saying all the money that he paid was for Vaishali, and to ‘complete’ the remaining ‘process’ - related to deleting the video - he was told to pay Rs. 22,000. He paid this amount to a different UPI under the name of Mahesh Saini, and after the transfer, he was told the video would be permanently deleted.
However, again on March 25, he received an unknown call on WhatsApp where the caller told the victim that his video was currently on some social media sites, and that to take it off, he would have to pay Rs 35,000.
This time, instead of paying the money, the victim disclosed everything to his two roommates who suggested blocking all the numbers and reporting it to 1930 - National Cyber Crime Portal instead. He did, and later he approached the Kanjurmarg police station to register a formal complaint against the women Vaishali, Mrs Kiran Bala and Mahesh Saini and handed over their contact numbers (through which they communicated), UPI IDs and bank account details to the police for investigation.
“It’s a typical case of sextortion - where cybercriminals play with the vulnerabilities of the victim. Using taboo as their main tool by threatening to leak videos, they extort money from them. However, citizens should immediately register the complaint online by dialling 1930 even if they end up losing money. Promptness in such situations will not only save their money but will also help us track the bank accounts of cybercriminals. In this case, we have started the probe,” said a senior police official.
