A 40-year-old man has lodged a complaint with the police, claiming that he received a morphed obscene video from an unknown fraudster and was induced to pay money to prevent the sharing of the said video with his friends and relatives.
According to the police, the complainant is a resident of Virar. On October 30, around 9.30 pm, when the victim was at home, he received a message from an unknown WhatsApp number. The victim did not respond to the said message, after which, around 3 am, the victim again received a message from the same unknown number.
Caller demands ransom
Upon checking the message, he was shocked to find an obscene video clip with his face morphed into it. Subsequently, the victim received a phone call from the same number, and the caller demanded an extortion of Rs 25,000, asking the victim to transfer the money to the blackmailer's another number, as per the police.
The blackmailer then threatened the victim that if he failed to meet his demand, the said clip would be shared with his friends and relatives on Facebook and WhatsApp. Fearing the threats, the victim sent Rs 2,000 to the blackmailer, but continued to receive threatening messages.
Victim approaches police
The victim then informed the blackmailer that he did not have the money and would pay him the remaining amount later. However, the blackmailer stopped messaging the victim, leading the victim to realise that he had been duped, prompting him to approach the police.
The police have registered a case under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 507 (criminal intimidation by anonymous communication) of the Indian Penal Code, and 66C (identity theft), 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act.
