The Malabar Hill police have launched a manhunt for a loan agent who allegedly harassed a borrower by sending to his contact list a morphed porn clip and a message purportedly claiming that the borrower had raped a five-year-old girl, and police were looking for him.
It all started on March 19, when the 34-year-old victim, a resident of Walkeshwar, received a message offering him a temporary loan of Rs15,000 to be repaid in three months. The victim found the offer appealing and clicked on the link provided in the message. An apk file was downloaded and an application named ‘Free Cash’ got downloaded.
The victim then filled in all his details - name, address, photograph - and uploaded his Aadhaar and Pan cards and also gave reference numbers. He also allowed the app to access his contact list.
“Initially, I was offered a loan of Rs 15,000, which I had to repay in 90 days. However, during the process they reduced the loan to Rs 4,000, of which I received only Rs 2,350 in my account. I learnt of the repayment period of seven days only when I received a call from the agent,” said the victim, requesting anonymity.
“In the first call, the agent threatened me if I delayed or defaulted on the repayment,” he said. “This led to an argument and in a fit of rage, I said I would not pay anything,”
As soon as their conversation ended, the fraudster allegedly created a WhatsApp message saying, “ALERT: this man raped a 5 year old girl, brutally assaulted her and she is in ICU now. Please pray for his family and help police find this man. This message is generated by police to everyone on his list. Police are on the lookout for him. If any person knows his whereabouts, just inform the nearest police station.” This message was sent to all his friends and relatives, including his father. The message was circulated along with a photo of his Aadhaar card and contact number.
As soon as the message was delivered, the victim’s phone would not stop ringing. Friends and relatives began to question him. He had to convince them not to believe in rumours and to block the number.
However, the matter did not end there. A few days later, the fraudster created a morphed porn clip using the victim’s photo on his Aadhaar card and circulated it among his contacts. Some women on the victim’s contact list also received the video. Further, the fraudster threatened him that unless he paid up, the women on his contact list would be blackmailed.
After the victim approached police, they registered an offence under section 500 (defamation) , 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) along with Information Technology (IT) act section 67 A (punishment for publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act in electronic form).
“We are trying to trace the accused with the contact number and his banking details from the money transfer,” police said.
“People should never download any such third-party apps from links, always download it from trusted sources like Play Store and App Store. Be cautious while granting permissions to apps as well and always give only necessary permissions and that too when the app is in use, that way we can minimize the risk,” said cyber expert Mahendra Hemdev.
