Mumbai: A retired government bank employee from Bandra lost Rs 17.70 lakhs to a 'sextortion' scam, stated reports.
The man is a 64-year-old man reportedly received messages on WhatsApp from a woman and their conversation progressed quickly between the two.
According to a Hindustan Times report, the woman who had introduced herself as a Gujarat resident had intimate chats. The old man later received video call from the woman in which she was naked and recorded the call with him being visible in the frame.
Promptly after, the woman began demanding money; she initially asked for Rs 10,000, the report stated. However, the man chose not to make the payment.
On September 22, he received a call from a person claiming to be a Vikram Rathod, an inspector with Delhi cyber police and scared the man saying that a case was registered against him in the city and a team will soon leave to arrest him. He demanded money from him to avoid arrest.
An official from Bandra police station was quoted as saying that the old man deposited a total amount of Rs 16.50 lakh into the bank account of the caller in numerous transactions.
The spate of calls continued and the impersonating police officer said that his video has been uploaded and a Ranvir Gupta will get in touch with him to take down the video.
Gupta demanded Rs 1.3 lakh to take the video down from the victim. He transferred the money digitally with help of his friend. He later got a call from Rathod who asked for more money saying the woman had died by suicide and that her father was demanding money.
This reportedly was the final straw, the senior citizen then approached police and filed a case against an unidentified person.
The HT report quoted senior inspector Rajesh Devere saying that case was registered under sections 170 (Impersonating a public servant), 385 (extortion) and 387 (Putting or attempting to put a person in fear of death or grievous hurt in order to commit extortion) of the Indian Penal Code including IT Act. He also said that further probe is underway.
